Legacy of Konoha
by saraki22
Summary: In the fight to protect Tsunade from Kabuto, Naruto reveals a power no one expected.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and only use it for entertainment purposes.

The fight was not going well for the Konoha shinobi. With Jiraiya still weak from Tsunade's drug, Tsunade herself frightened to immobility by the sight of the blood in the area and Shizune also out of commission there was only one person between Tsunade and Kabuto, Naruto. The problem was he too was no injured, Kabuto just used his chakra scalpel to injure Naruto's leg when he tried to hit the glasses wearing Oto-nin with the incomplete Rasengan. With great effort Naruto stood up and glared at his enemy. Kabuto found this amusing and decided to taunt Naruto a bit.

Kabuto pulled out one of his Nin-Info cards and showed it Naruto. "Naruto," he said. "Isn't this a picture of you from around the time of the test?" Naruto gave no reply except a questioning look. "You're nothing special, Naruto." Kabuto was looking at the picture with Naruto's information. "You should run, if you can still move. It was luck that you became a Gennin, but with that exceptional spirit it would fitting for you to become Hokage," Kabuto paused and gave Naruto a condescending look. "But for that you cannot be cowardly." Naruto looked surprised and Kabuto smirked knowing he was getting to the Gennin. "Now, do you think that you could possibly become something like that?"

Tsunade being so close could hear everyone of Kabuto's statements. It was reminding her of the argument she and Naruto had just a week prior with her ridiculing Naruto and saying his dream was foolish. She could not help but feel sorrow as she compared herself to the person trying to kill the one protecting her.

Kabuto's condescending smirk vanished however when Naruto's face became one of absolute determination. "You say I'm nothing special and yet you don't know a damn thing about me!" Naruto exclaimed.

"What's with those eyes?" Kabuto taunted. "They'll get you killed. If you die here you'll never attain your dreams or anything else."

"I won't run away. I'll become Hokage," Naruto said.

"Then die," Kabuto replied as he charged the injured Gennin preparing a fatal blow. To his surprise Naruto stood his ground even with the bad leg. To Kabuto's further surprise Naruto began to made hand seals. This surprised him because all his information about Naruto said he could only do two jutsus, Kage Bushin no Jutsu and Kyuchiose no Jutsu, and the seals Naruto was doing were longer than either Ninjutsu.

When Naruto was finished he called out, "Mokudon: Koeda Shibaru no Jutstu! (Wood Element: Branch Bind Skill)." To the amazement of everyone watching the battle several tree branches suddenly sprouted from the ground and encircled Kabuto stopping him mid- stride.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?" Kabuto shouted, sharing the thoughts of everyone there completely stunned, non more so the Tsunade, by this development.

"hey Tsunade-obachan," Naruto said forming another hand seal, this one much more familiar to everyone watching. "You remember the arrangements of the bet," Tsunade did not answer still too stunned by Naruto's jutsu. "Now you'll have to give me that back luck charm amulet of yours, Kage Bushin no Jutsu!" a single clone appeared to Naruto's right.

"One Kage Bushin?" Tsunade thought. "What's he doing? And how did he…?"

Her thoughts were cut off when the Kage Bushin started to help Naruto form the Rasengan. It provided a second and third hand that balanced as well as put pressure on the swirling chakra in his right hand. When the ball of chakra was fully stabilized the Kage Bushin vanished into a cloud of smoke just as Naruto dashed straight towards Kabuto, "Let's see you avoid this one! Rasengan!" Kabuto showed fear for the first time as Naruto plunged the chakra ball into his gut.

The result of the attack was a sudden burst of spinning air pressure that ripped apart the wood bindings holding Kabuto in place as well as catapulting Kabuto backwards. For nearly ten meters he flew with the ground being torn apart by the trailing vortex of wind. What finally stopped him was a large boulder that crumbled because of the impact.

To Naruto's shock however Kabuto was still standing at the end, "Those were impressive jutsus." The wound of Kabuto's stomach started to shrink right before Naruto and Tsunade's eyes, "If I hadn't started to heal the damage at the point of impact I would have been done for." The wound all but disappeared as Naruto dropped to his knees do to chakra exhaustion, "They seemed to have tired you out." Kabuto took a step forward to finish Naruto off but suddenly double over in pain, "What is this?" his mind screamed as the second part of the Rasengan's effects occurred, the delayed damage from air pressure that resulted after the initial hit of the Rasengan.

Orochimaru after seeing the jutsus Naruto displayed came to a decision. "Those jutsus," the Snake Sennin thought. "He could become a threat to my future plans. I must kill him now while I have the chance! I'll find out how he has the Shodaime's power afterwards." With his decision made Orochimaru jumped away from the still distracted Jiraiya calling on his sword Kusanagi (Grass Cutter).

Naruto saw the attack but was too tired to move out of the way. In fact he was too tired to even stay awake, but just as the sword reached him Naruto saw Tsunade step in front of him saving his life. He blacked out soon afterwards faintly hearing, "Because I'm the Godaime Hokage."

When Naruto woke up the first thing he noticed was that his location was inside a hotel room. The next thing he discovered was that it was dark out meaning he had been out for several hours at least. "What happened?" he asked quietly. The battle he recently fought came back to his mind, "Oh yeah! The fight with Orochimaru and Kabuto. Since I'm alive I guess we won."

Naruto's ears then caught noises outside his room and he strained to listen in. "Alright Jiraiya!" he heard Tsunade say loudly, "You have a lot of explaining to do!"

"You think I know how he managed that jutsu?" Jiraiya replied. "I haven't go a clue, he never used anything like that before. At least not in the few months I've known him!"

"You expect me to believe that?" Tsunade asked.

There was a dead silence afterwards and Naruto could imagine the two Sennins glaring at one another in anger. The silence was broken by a muffled third voice. A few seconds later the door opened and the three that were speaking in the other room entered. When they saw Naruto was awake they gave him a piercing look. It was not one of anger or malice but one of curiosity, like they were trying to probe deep into his being to try and figure him out. Naruto knew why, it was because of the power he displaced in the fight. A moment later Tsunade's face softened as she approached Naruto's bed. "I'm glad to see you're awake," she greeted as she reached for her necklace, "Here this belongs to you."

Naruto gave his fox-like grin and took the necklace and put it over his head, "Thanks Obachan."

Tsunade smiled for a moment but it became serious very quickly, "Naruto about the jutsu you used to bind Kabuto…" she trailed off when Naruto looked away. It was clear that he did not want to say, but this was as issue that they absolutely needed to know.

"We need to know Naruto," Jiraiya said beating Tsunade to it.

"I was first able to call on when I was five," Naruto began…

A young Naruto was alone in the woods trying to call on chakra like the Sensei at the Academy said. It was one of the first lessons they taught and Naruto, like everything else, was forced to practice alone. He was having great difficulty in the exercise even more so then others for some reason. The only consolation was that he was not the only one having trouble calling on his chakra as it was difficult to begin with for children so young. But Naruto had seen others do it and they got high praise for it, and Naruto would do anything for praise. As he continued to try and draw out chakra he began to notice something about the small trees around him, they seemed to be growing as he concentrated.

He stopped trying to call his chakra and the young trees stopped growing. He called on his chakra again and the trees grew a little bit. He was confused and repeated the process several times and his five year old mind could only come up with one conclusion, "This is weird." A chuckle from behind Naruto told him he was not alone. When Naruto spun around hoping it was not more people that looked at him with hate he saw it was the closest person he had to family, "Ojiisan?"

"Yes Naruto," the Hokage said. "And what you're doing isn't weird just a little unexpected."

"Did I do something wrong?" the five year old asked innocently. He was always getting yelled at for doing something wrong he did not know about.

"No, come with me I need to tell you some things," the Sandaime said…

"We talked in his office and he told me it was something I got from my mother," Naruto said. "He told me to keep it a secret because people would want to hurt me because of it. Never told me why, though I figured it was why people hated me, so I agreed." He gave a sad smile at the memory because it brought up the fresh scars of the old Hokage's recent death. "Four years later in History Class I learned about the Shodaime's ability to control wood. I asked him about it and he said I had the same power and that people might try and kill me to get it. After that he let me read a couple of the Shodaime's scrolls and I learned some of his jutsus. I still kept it a secret to this day."

"Did Sarutobi-sensei tell you your mother's name?" Tsunade asked.

"Jiisan said her name was Doshaburi Minako," Naruto answered. "Said he had to change my family name to keep me safe."

When he was done the Sennin gave each other look saying they needed to talk some more away from Naruto, mostly to decided how to tell him the rest where the Sandaime left off. "Get some more rest Naruto," Tsunade instructed. "We'll be leaving early tomorrow to head back to Konoha."

"But I'm not tiered," Naruto tried to say but his yawn at the end indicated otherwise, much to the amusement of the others in the room. "Ok some I guess I am a little tired," Naruto relented. "Just don't let Ero-Sennin make us late when we leave tomorrow because he's to tired after getting slapped from girls all night."

"Don't call me that brat!" Jiraiya yelled. "And I never get slapped by girls, why in fact they flock to my side because of rugged good looks." He then took a thoughtful pose for a second before a perverted smirk appeared on his lips. "Although that can be kind of fu…"

Tsunade driving him into the floor boards with a downward punch to the head cut him off, "Danm pervert!" she scowled. She turned to Naruto who looked worried because he did not want to be hit by Tsunade knowing what she could do. When she arrived at his bed she lifted his Hitei-Ate and gave him a soft kiss on the forehead, "Get some sleep Naruto." Naruto nodded with a smile on his face as Tsunade picked the Super Pervert up by the back of his shirt and dragged him to the door.

When the three elder shinobi were out of the room Naruto fingered the necklace happy that another person had acknowledged him. As he drifted off to sleep he wondered what he would have to do once the returned to Konoha, "Will I be able to tell everyone I can use the Mokudon jutsus or will I have to keep it a secret like before. I hope I can tell people because I'm sure Sakura-chan would go out with me then."

Once they were out the door Jiraiya miraculously straightened out just as Shizune joined them. "Doshaburi Minako that explains a lot," Jiraiya said. "One of two the people that survived Orochimaru's experiments in recreating Shodaime's ability to control the Bijuu's chakra."

"Because she never showed any of the abilities of the other one it was thought that even though she survived the experiment it was ultimately a failure," Tsunade continued.

"Apparently not as much as one as first thought," Jiraiya said.

"This also seems to confirm the theory that Shodaime's ability was carried on the Y-chromosome and so only his male descendants could use the power," Shizune joined in. "That also explains why Tsunade-sama was never able to use the same power. But I wonder why Nawaki…" she stopped herself after realized who she mentioned. "I'm sorry Tsunade-sama."

Tsunade waved the apology off because of more important matters at hand. "The question is why was Naruto able use the Mokudon so early in life? Even the Shodaime didn't start using it until he was well into his teens," Jiraiya stated.

"The Kyuubi maybe," Tsunade guessed. "But I can't confirm anything here. I will need to do a full examination of Naruto and seal when we get back."

"I wonder if Yondaime sealed the Kyuubi in Naruto-kun because he thought me might be able to use Shodaime's power to affect the Bijuu's chakra?" Shizune asked.

"That is a possibility," Jiraiya answered. "Unfortunately we'll never know for sure." He became thoughtful for a moment recalling what happened when he first used the Kyuubi's chakra, "Now that I think about it that would explain his ability to use the Kyuubi's chakra without being overwhelmed by it. And now with the necklace he should have even more control."

"The Kyuubi's power combined with the Shodaime's," Tsunade said. "Looks like Naruto has become more of a target then you first thought Jiraiya. He'll need to be trained in how to fully use his abilities."

"Looks like I'll have some help in training him," Jiraiya stated. "And to think I first took him on just because I saw the potential for him to be just like me." He realized the error in his words when he saw Shizune frown at him and Tsunade start to crack her knuckles.

"Jiraiya," Tsunade said with clenched teeth, "You had better not try and turn him into a pervert!"

Jiraiya jumped back waiving his hands in placating gesture, "No, no, I wouldn't think anything of that. I was just saying he could be the next Kauru-Sennin is all!" the two kunoichi looked at one another then back at Jiraiya. Their gaze became harder clearly indicating that they did not believe him. Knowing that he would get a sever beating unless he changed the subject quickly Jiraiya said, "We should all turn in. The longer we're out in the open the greater the chance someone might come after Naruto. I doubt Orochimaru is willing to give up on targeting him."

Tsunade continued to glare at Jiraiya for another ten seconds before nodding in agreement. She knew he was just trying to change the subject to avoid pain but he did have a point. "Yeah we should get some sleep." Jiraiya let a breath of relief escape as Tsunade went into her room. Just before she entered the room she turned back to her old teammate, "Oh and Jiraiya don't let me catch trying to peep at any women or I'll remove what defines a man from your body."

Jiraiya visibly flinched at the threat, "There goes my recreation for the trip back." It was too bad Jiraiya said this out loud and that he forgot Shizune was still standing next to him. A smack to his face was good reminder however as Shizune stomped off to her room giving him a similar warring.

The next day Naruto, Shizune with Tonton, and Tsunade were waiting outside the hotel for Jiraiya. When they informed the front desk they were checking out and asked where their fourth member was the clerk told them that Jiraiya had left just after sun up. He made a comment that Jiraiya had an unusual grin on his face as he left following a pair of attractive ladies out of the hotel. It was easy to see what Jiraiya was doing while they were waiting. "So who should go get Ero-Sennin?" Naruto asked.

"Don't bother brat I'm right here," Jiraiya came up to them. He had two slap marks on his face showing the result of another failed attempt to get a date.

"Serves you right Ero-Sennin," Naruto said pointing at the marks.

"Stop calling me that!" Jiraiya shouted. "Well anyway let's get going." He walked away quickly because of the killing intent radiating off of Tsunade. He did not want to test validity of Tsunade's threat from last night.

After they left the city Shizune decided to start up a conversation with Naruto about his newly revealed powers. "Naruto-kun?" she said drawing his attention to her. "You said that you looked at Shodaime's jutsu scrolls when you were younger. How many of Shodaime's jutsus do you know?"

"Only three," Naruto answered. "Mokudon: Koeda Kanazucki (Branch Hammer), Mokudon: Seicho (Growth) and you of course Mokudon: Koeda Shibaru."

"Those were only his most basic jutsus," Tsunade said. "Let me guess you can't do any others because of your problems with chakra control." Naruto nodded in confirmation, "Not surprising my Ojiisan's more advanced jutsus require pretty good control it ran in our family actually. In fact that's where I got mine natural control."

"If you want to learn those jutsus you're going to have to really work hard on your chakra control brat," Jiraiya said joining in. "Though it shouldn't be as much of a problem now."

"Why's that Ero-Sennin?" Naruto asked, Jiraiya's eye twitched at Naruto using the nickname once again.

"The necklace is the reason," Tsunade answered. "One of the Shodaime's powers was the ability to affect a Bijuu's chakra. Combined with the special properties of that stone it can control wild nature of the Kyuubi's chakra. Of course you'll have to learn how to use the ability first to gain better control."

"Hey can I start now?" Naruto was excited with the prospect. He, like everyone in Konoha, knew the Shodaime's personal jutsus were very powerful. And if there was one thing Naruto enjoys as much as ramen it would be learning powerful jutsus.

"Sorry Naruto," Tsunade said. "No of know the right way to train in that. You'll have to learn from the scrolls when he get back." Naruto frowned in disappointed and started to pout about the unfairness of the world. This caused the women to giggle thinking it was cute and Jiraiya to smirk in amusement.

The rest of the journey past quickly and quietly, well as quietly as you could with Naruto in the group. And with in only a couple of days they were approaching Konoha once again. "Naruto," Tsunade spoke up suddenly. "For now do not show anyone that you can use Mokudon jutsus." Naruto frowned he was hopping to show Sakura and Sasuke, after Tsunade healed him that is, his hidden powers. "After everything gets settled we'll set up a training schedule so that you can learn more of the Shodaime's jutsus."

"Ok Tsunade-Obachan," Naruto replied causing Tsunade's eye to twitch. The trio of adults had learned on their journey that Naruto had a tendency to give the people he cared about nicknames on how he saw them forming a surrogate family; Shizune an older sister, Iruka the teacher, Tsunade an aunt, Jiraiya the perverted uncle that no one talks about, and so on. In a way it was rather endearing but in other ways it was rather irritating, Tsunade did like to be called old and Jiraiya did not like to be called a pervert in public because of the beatings women would give him. So they tolerated the nicknames even though they did not like them.

At Konoha Hospital a certain pink haired Gennin was paying her daily visit to her hospitalized crush. She had come to see Sasuke everyday since Gai-sensei brought him back. When she asked what happened Gai gave a brief explanation and assured her that Naruto and a new sensei of his were bringing back someone that could not only heal her teammates but also his student Lee. She was happy for the news that help would arrived but as the days turned into weeks she became depressed wondering how long it would take.

Just as she finished replacing her flower, and throwing Ino's away, she heard a commotion outside the door. When the door opened she was surprised to see the familiar orange clad Gennin dragging some woman through the door, "He's this way hurry up and heal him!"

"Naruto stop bothering that poor woman!" Sakura chastised.

Naruto turned to Sakura with a smile on his face, "Hey Sakura-chan you can stop worrying." He gestured to Tsunade, "She's a great doctor she'll fix him and Kakashi-sensei up in no time."

Tsunade walked over to the comatose Uchiha and placed a green glowing hand on his head. Turning to the perplexed Sakura she smiled, "He'll be alright now." She then

removed her hand and no sooner than she did then Sasuke's eyes opened.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura cried as she lunged at Sasuke embracing him in a powerful hug.

Naruto observed the interplay between his crush and hers with sad eyes. Quietly he stepped out of the room not wanting to get in the way. Tsunade watched Naruto as he left, "Looks like Naruto is more sensitive then I thought," she said silently.

Once she was out in the hall Naruto was back to his usual self and began dragging her to heal Kakashi. When they arrived Tsunade immediately revived the Son of the White Fang but not without saying, "Two people did this to you, some genius."

Naruto seeing his sensei recovered decided to leave and visit his team. As he left Tsunade spoke up, "And remember Naruto, don't tell anyone." Naruto stopped and gave a nod before leaving.

After his loudest student left Kakashi asked, "What was that about Tsunade-sama?"

"Some new developments about Naruto have come into light recently that you need to be aware of," Tsunade answered. Kakashi could only sit up in his seat in confusion wondering if anything bad happened to his student while he was out of the village.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and only use it for entertainment purposes.

Three days had passed since Naruto brought Tsunade back to Konoha to be the Godaime Hokage. In that time she had been extremely busy; first she had to inform Kakashi about Naruto's hidden abilities, then she had to break the news to Gai that his student Rock Lee may never be a shinobi again, she had to arrange training for Naruto from the one person that could help and finally she had to oversee the results of the recent Chunin Exam. All in all she was already starting to regret taking the position of Hokage.

Currently she was talking with the judges of the final part of the Chunin Exam reviewing their decision for who was to get promoted. "I agree with the promotion of Nara Shikamaru," Tsunade said. "But what I am most interested in is the actions of certain Gennin during the actual invasion. Because it was technically a time of war a field promotion can be given."

"You are referring to the Gennins that chased after Sabaku no Gaara and his teammates correct," one of the Chunin asked. "Not counting Nara Shikamaru there were four Gennins that followed the trio; Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura, Uzumaki Naruto and Aburame Shino."

"Yes, yes, I know the result of the fights," Tsunade said. Naruto had described in detail what had happened during his fight with Gaara. At first she thought he was exaggerating as he seemed to have a tendency to do but Jiraiya had confirmed Naruto's telling from listing to one of his summons. Apparently Gamabunta and his son Gamakichi were telling stories about the their latest summoner and the battle with the Shukaku. "What I wish to know is do you think anyone of them deserve the rank of Chunin."

"From what his fellow Gennin said about Aburame Shino he would be the only one that should get a promotion from that fight," the Chunin said. "Unfortunately because no Chunin or Jounin witnessed his battle with Sabaku no Kankuro we cannot give him the rank of Chunin. The regulations state that in a field promotion at least one Chunin or Jounin must be a witness."

Tsunade sighed, the Chunin was right about the regulations so she had no choice to deny Shino's promotion even if Konoha could use another Chunin. "Alright it's agreed, only Nara Shikamaru will receive the promotion to Chunin."

"Good day Hokage-sama," the Chunin stood and bowed then left the office.

A knock on her door indicated that Tsunade had another visitor wanting to see her, "Who is it this time Shizune?"

"It the one you sent for Tsunade-sama," her assistant answered. Shizune stepped sighed and an Anbu Captain entered the office.

"You wished to summon me Tsunade-sama?" the Anbu asked.

"Yes," Tsunade answered. "I have a mission for you that only you can accomplish."

Kakashi was at the usual spot he went to when he wanted to think, the memorial for shinobi killed in action. He had been spending his time here just about every waking moment after Tsunade had told him about Naruto's ability to use the Mokudon (wood element). It was news that caught him totally by surprise never imagining his loudest student had such a powerful 'bloodline.' He was not really sure if he could call it a Bloodline Limit, but it was the only thing he could come up with at the moment. In reality Naruto's ability to use wood was similar to his ability to use the Sharingan, it was a part of him but the ultimate source was artificial.

The real problem was he had no idea how to approach Naruto with this. The truth was Kakashi had nothing to really contribute to his training anymore, only one person could really help Naruto with learning the Shodaime's jutsus and Jiraiya had already taken Naruto under his wing. The report about the fight between Gaara and Naruto was proof that Naruto had grown much farther then he would have if Kakashi had trained him. Imagine a Gennin being able to summon a Boss Summon in order to fight the equivalent of another. The news came as a slap in the face over the inadequacies he had as a sensei when the student he taught personally failed and the one he brushed aside succeeded.

He looked up at the Hokage Monument focusing on the fourth face. "So what do I do know sensei? You always seemed to have the right answers when we were stuck on something."

"For now you can either move over or actually go on that mission you received an hour ago," a female voice said. A woman in an Anbu uniform came up to the Memorial.

"Yagao," Kakashi greeted. "You've been spending a lot of time here."

"The same can be said about you Kakashi," Yagoa returned. "I'm only here to pay my respects to a departed friend. I come to pay my respects to the past not hide from the present and future." Without another word she walked up to the memorial and said a small prayer in silence then left but not before saying, "You really should get on that mission I hear that the knew Hokage has quite a temper when it comes to lateness, and then there is her open dislike for your favorite book," Kakashi looked worried and patted his pouch to make sure his book was still present, "Looks like you're twice as unlucky as

With your habits this time Kakashi."

Sakura was wondering through the village for once not looking for her crush Sasuke. She was in fact looking for her other teammate Naruto. After the Finals she had thanked Sasuke for saving her from Gaara for, in her mind, only the Uchiha genius could have saved her from that monster. However that was shot down when Sasuke had informed her that is was Naruto that rescued her. She had actually meant to thank him but got distracted by the amusing sight of the blonde trying to learn Chidori. Then when she tried to thank him later she found out that he went on mission with someone. Which was very odd for Gennin very seldom went on missions without their assigned teams, just one more reason she wanted to find Naruto. It seemed he was changing faster than anyone could have guest before the Chunin Exam.

She continued to walk when she caught sight of a depressed looking Lee just staggering around with his crutch. This caught her by surprise because just a few days ago she saw him training his non-injured limbs with more enthusiasm and determination she had ever seen in anyone, except for maybe Naruto. To see the Gennin like this was a rather disturbing sight. "Lee-san are you alright?" Sakura asked.

The usually over excitable Gennin gave her a sad frown for a brief moment then a smile came to his face at the idea of talking to Sakura. "Oh I'm fine Sakura-chan," Lee said. He was lying though he was actually very upset. He had been told by one of if not the greatest medical-nins in the world that he no chance at continuing his life as a shinobi, something that meant absolutely everything to him. To come as far as he did with such a handicap as great as his and then have it taken away was very devastating. But the absolute last thing he wanted was to upset anyone so he put on a happy face whenever he was not alone. "So what are you doing here Sakura-chan?"

"Oh I was just taking a walk that's all," Sakura said. "I guess I can tell Naruto thank you later, Lee looks like he could use a friend." It was rather odd thing about Sakura, she could see behind false fronts rather well in everyone else but her team. She could tell that Lee was feeling down and thought she could bring his spirits up. "Care to join me?"

Lee actually liked that idea. H had never been one that would wallow in self pity and taking a walk with her would at least distract him from his problems for a little while. "I would love to Sakura-chan!" Sakura actually gave him a small smile as she could tell she had genially cheered him up.

Naruto was off in the forest practicing the Mokudon: Seicho (Growth). This was actually the base for all of the Shodaime's jutsu and consent practice helped in learning all the other jutsus. Thus he was constantly practicing this jutsu in preparation for his new training in the rest of Shodaime's jutsus.

Mokudon: Seicho was a jutsu that did just what is said, it stimulated the growth of the plants around the person using the jutsu. In this case a tree that was about five meters high. While it was not all that impressive compared to the rest of the trees in and around Konoha it was impressive in that it was just over a year old. Naruto had planted and growing this tree with the jutsu for nearly a year now.

He stepped back from the tree and inspected its growth. "Heh, not bad," Naruto said. "All this extra training and chakra control is really paying off." He then grabbed the pendant that Tsunade gave him on the return trip. "I wonder if this has anything to do it. Obachan was right my control has gotten better since I put it on." After taking a look at the tree satisfied with the results he decided to change his training tactics. "Well that's enough creating now lets do some destroying." He then looked around, "Just not hear." He never really did like destroying the trees not since he could make them. He felt it was like destroying a part of himself.

Back in Tsunade's office she had just going over the details on Naruto with the Anbu that she summoned. The Anbu, who still had his mask on, let out a sigh of relief. "Because she also lived through Orochimaru's experiments Minako was like a sister to me. I was on an extended mission when the Kyuubi attacked, and the Sandaime told me that she and her child were killed. I'm glad that at least a part of her remains."

"Yamato, do you know who might be Naruto's father?" Tsunade asked. She had been wondering about Naruto's father ever since she got back. By his looks one might guess he could be related to Yondaime, but then again the same could be said of the Yamanaka family as well. She could order a blood test and compare the records but that could take weeks to months before she found out anything. Yamato and Minako were close so if anyone could narrow her search he could.

"I'm afraid not," Yamato sighed. "She never said anything about whom got her pregnant. Because these can things happen while on long missions no one questioned her about it." Tsunade understood exactly what Yamato was saying. On very long and often dangerous missions emotions often become very intense that lead to acts that a person would not normally take. And because of this it was not unheard of that a kunoichi might become pregnant out of wedlock. There was no shame in it because it was just one of the aspects of the lives they led. "What surprises me is that Sandaime never told me about Naruto. I wonder what is motivation for keeping the information a secret was."

"Sarutobi-sensei never did anything without his reasons," Tsunade said. "I'll probably be looking through his private journals for the next few weeks. There are a lot of questions that have come up and very few answers." She glanced at the clock noting it was getting late in the afternoon and she still had other important tasks that needed to be done. "You should tell you're squad that you'll be on temporary reassignment for the next couple of months also have the Anbu Commander replace your position in the squad. I have to get some more work done."

"You mean trying to find a way to help that kid Rock Lee?" Yamato asked. He did not need to hear an answer; Tsunade's pause was enough of a confirmation. "I hope you can help him, I've seen him training every now and then. He has the drive to become great it would be a shame to loose him."

Jiraiya was once again doing what he did best, gathering information, whether it was inspiration for his new book or checking on various threats to Konoha there was no one better. Right now he was looking for information on his new book, meaning he was peeping into the female side of the hot springs, again. The problem that often got Jiraiya in trouble was that when he was watching gorgeous women take a soak his normally alert senses became severely dulled. And just as his luck would have it a woman with a bust almost the size of Tsunade's just walked into the spring. This was bad because someone, a certain blond Gennin that had a reputation for being very loud, just happened walk by and hear Jiraiya's perverted giggle as he thought of his new scene for Icha Icha Paradise Volume Four.

Said blonde was wondering where the giggle was coming from and soon found the source. "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING YOU PERVERT?"

Jiraiya froze while the women in the spring screamed at the yell, normally he would have turned and punished someone for interrupting his data gathering like he did with Ebisu when he first met Naruto. This time he was panicking because he knew the source of the voice. Well not the individual person but the general source in terms of gender. Turning ever so slowly his eyes confirmed what his ears already told his brain. A girl with blonde hair and bluish green eyes about Naruto's age was standing there looking very angry while reaching into a kunai in order to give Jiraiya a new orifice in his body. "Um well you see," Jiraiya tried to explain but he cut short when several other females that heard the shout about a pervert soon joined the girl. Jiraiya knew it was time to make a very fast exit right then.

After ten minutes of hard chasing after some white haired pervert Yamanaka Ino was becoming very tired. She was the only shinobi in the group of women so at this point she was the only one still in the chase. And with the adrenaline fueled by her anger wearing off she was becoming fatigued quickly. After the pervert she was chasing made another disappearing act and she lost sight of him Ino decided to stop and catch her breath. Much of her anger was still enough to want to find and punish the pervert but not enough to ignore the burning in her legs. "Danm I need to train more!" she fumed. "I can't even catch one old pervert, no wonder I didn't be Forehead-Girl!"

"Rasengan!" a yell from close by followed by a very loud explosion interrupted Ino's thoughts.

"What the hell was that?" she asked surprised. Being a kunoichi it was her duty to investigate disturbances in and around Konoha if she came across one, especially with the recent Suna and Oto invasion. As a Gennin all she had to do was find the general location of the disturbance and tell a higher ranked shinobi. However the explosion was not building her confidence level at all.

"Damn it!" a familiar shout came from the direction of the explosion and previous shout. "I still can't do it one handed!"

"That sound's like Naruto," Ino thought. "What's he doing out here?" When Ino had paused in her pursuit of the white haired pervert she had taken note of just where she was. She found herself at the edge of where one of the forest training grounds end and one of the rocky ones began. It was very far from Team 7's normal training ground so to hear Naruto's voice was very surprising.

No longer worried about the danger of facing an enemy she decided to see what was going on. When she came on of the tree line she found a rocky area littered with craters with Naruto laying down next to one covered in bits of rock. "Ok one more time!" Naruto said.

Ino watched curiously as Naruto held out his hand palm up seeming to concentrate on it. Another couple of seconds she was surprised when a swirling mass of chakra formed in his hand. "Could he be trying to learn what Sasuke-kun did during the Chunin Exam?" Ino thought. Before the Chunin Exam Ino would have never though Naruto could perform such a powerful jutsu. After witnessing his defeat of Hyuuga Neji she was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. "Asuma-sensei did say it was a jutsu made on almost pure chakra," she muttered. "Now what did call it?" she thought for a second, "Oh yeah he called it Chidori! Is Naruto trying to learn Chidori?"

The chakra in Naruto's hand formed into a rough sphere shape just before he dashed towards a boulder that was as of yet undamaged. When he was close enough he thrust the ball of chakra into the boulder, "Rasengan!" the result was another explosion with Naruto flying back with pebbles hitting all over his body. After lying there panting Naruto said, "Still not right."

"Rasengan?" Ino whispered. "Guess he's not learning Chidori." Now that she thought about it there were significant differences in what Sasuke did and what Naruto was doing. The Chidori tended to arc like electricity, Naruto's 'Rasengan' looked like a swirling ball of wind. Wanting to find out what he was doing Ino moved closer to the still downed boy. "Hey Naruto was what that you just did?"

"Huh? Oh hi, that was my newest jutsu," Naruto answered. "And it's way better than Sasuke-teme's Chidori."

Not liking Sasuke being called names Ino's anger rose. "Don't call Sasuke-kun that! And besides this jutsu doesn't look all that impressive to me. It looks like it blew you up more than the boulder."

"That's just because I'm doing it one handed!" Naruto countered.

"Yeah right! I bet you would blow yourself up even more if you used both hands," Ino retorted.

Naruto frowned because Ino was actually right in that. Without his Kage Bushin (Shadow Clone) to back up his own hand he could not get enough pressure to hold the sphere. With just one hand he had just enough pressure that would result in an increase the backlash of the jutsu. On the plus side for Naruto he learned all he needed was a Kage Bushin to perform the jutsu freeing up one hand to block an incoming attack. Right now he was working on performing Rasengan without any aide so it would be the proper version he saw Jiraiya do. "Ha I'll show you!" Naruto said jumping to his feet. He like showing off and hated to be told what he should and not be able to do. Now he had a chance to show off and prove someone's conception about him wrong, two of his favorite things in the world. "Kage Bushin no Jutsu!"

"I've seen this one," Ino smirked.

"Shut up and watch!" Naruto yelled as his clone worked to stabilize the forming ball. After only a could of moments the ball completely formed and Naruto dashed off to another boulder. "Rasengan!" The ball drilled into the boulder driving it back several meters before it finally exploded into several thousand small rocks. "So what do you think of my latest jutsu now?"

"Wow," Ino said dumbfounded. She had to admit that was probably one of the most impressive jutsus she had ever seen including Sasuke's Chidori. She just had to know how Naruto learned such a powerful jutsu. "Hey tell me where you learned that."

With Naruto always wanting attention and praise from others was more than happy to tell Ino about his mission to look for Tsunade, even though he did leave out certain parts like the fight involving Kabuto and the Sennins. The reason was because the Sandaime Hokage's death was still a sour subject for everyone, especially his age group because everyone view the old man a loving grandparent. Telling Ino about his killer would have upset the blonde kuniochi. "And so I won the bet and Tsunade-bachan had to give me this," Naruto said holding up the necklace.

After inspecting the necklace and determining that it had to be worth a fortune she bopped Naruto on the head, "You shouldn't talk about Hokage-sama like that!" Ino berated. "And I can't believe you learned from such a blatant pervert!" Naruto had not pulled any punches when describing Jiraiya. Also from Naruto's description of his she determined that Jiraiya was the old man she was chasing after just before she found Naruto. "You said he helped train you for the Finals, what did this Jiraiya teach you then?"

"Well first he taught to walk on water and then he taught me Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning)," Naruto answered.

Again she was impressed, water walking was actually an upper Gennin low Chunin chakra control exercise and learning how to summon properly was rather difficult because it required a lot of power and pretty precise control. "Who would have ever thought Naruto would become so strong?" Ino thought. "So what do you summon?"

"I summon toads!" Naruto said proudly.

"Eww I hate toad!" Ino complained.

Naruto looked indignant at Ino's reaction, "I'll have you know the Yondaime Hokage summoned toads as well," Naruto said. "And because he came up with Rasengan you can say I'm just like him."

"I seriously doubt you're like the strongest Hokage there's been!" Ino said at the proclamation, "I will give you this you've grown a lot more than I think you would have."

Naruto would have frowned at jab about him not being like the Yondaime but Ino had acknowledged the fact that he had become strong and that was good enough for him. A growl of his stomach changed the subject of the conversation. Rubbing the back of his head with a fox-like smile he said, "Guess it's time to eat, want to come to Ichiruka with me?" Naruto always like inviting his friends to his favorite restaurant and Ino had just become his newest friend.

Ino would have decline if her stomach had not joined Naruto's after the invitation. With a slight blush from embarrassment she said"I guess I'm hungry too, so sure."


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and only use it for entertainment purposes.

Tsunade had been working non-stop to raise the chances of Lee surviving the operation needed to restore him to full heath. What she had in mind was inspired from what she observed Kabuto was able to do in his fight against Naruto. The way Kabuto used his chakra to regenerate his cells in a focused area was very impressive. If she could duplicate the effect she could raise Lee's survival enough to where it would be worth the risk of the operation.

After nearly three days of constant research she formulated a plan to accomplish just that. Now all she had to do was inform Lee and Gai. She found the pair at the top of the Hokage Monument looking over the Village. She could see the pair were depressed, she could not help but feel better that the news she was about to give them would cheer them up. "Gai, Lee I some important news I must inform you of," she said spoke with a serious voice.

"And what would that be Tsunade-sama?" Gai asked. He tone was guarded. He was afraid that Tsunade would remove Lee's status as a shinobi for medical reasons. It was a valid reason and Tsunade was the best to make that determination. Still he knew that it would probably kill Lee if he was forced to give up his dream.

"I have been doing research on your injuries Lee," Tsunade said. "I have found a way to increase the chances of your survival to fifty percent. It is enough that I am willing to risk the operation, but it must be your decision."

Tsunade inwardly smiled at the silence of the pair. There were very few situations that could silence them. "Tsunade-sama do you mean you can cure Lee?" Gai asked. His voice low with disbelief, yet holding high hopes at the same time.

"A fifty percent chance of curing him," Tsunade repeated. "The risk is still great but I am willing to perform the operation if you are willing to endure it."

Lee came out of his shock and with a quite voice he spoke. "My whole life I wanted to prove that I could be strong without Ninjutsu or Genjutsu. To prove everyone that looked down on me wrong was my dream it meant everything to me." His voice rose and was filled with determination, "I want the operation, and I will prove to everyone that you can be a great shinobi with just Taijutsu!"

"YOSH YOUR LIKE THE PHOENIX YOUR YOUTHFUL FLAMES SHALL RAISE ONCE AGAIN AND BURN EVEN BRIGHTER!" Gai exclaimed.

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

The odd Jounin and Gennin descended into their normal display of affection that would normally cause a person to be very creeped out. But this time it was a sign that they were once again back at their normally overly jubilant selves. "The current generation is strong Sensei," Tsunade thought. "I think they could be the strongest Konoha has had in a long time."

In the forest training ground where Naruto had his tree he was meeting with his newest sensei, Yamato. Naruto met the man yesterday and for both it was a rather awkward meeting. Yamato was unsure how to approach the only child of his fellow survivor and Naruto was unsure how to react to Yamato's staring. Yamato spent five minutes just silently watching the Gennin trying to see anything recognizable in his features. Naruto not used to having someone look at him like Yamato did waited silently. He had no idea how to react to this look; hate he knew to ignore, disappointment he knew to push harder, disregard he knew to yell at, but silent curiosity he had no idea. After that five minutes Yamato was able find one feature that reminded him of Minako, Naruto's eyes. Blue eyes were not uncommon in Konoha but only one person besides Naruto had eyes as pure blue as his and that was Minako.

After that Yamato informed Naruto who he was and what he was going to teach him. Naruto became excited and eagerly asked when they would start. They started that day with Yamato testing Naruto's abilities. The Anbu Captain was not impressed but not disappointed either. Naruto performed just as he expected him to do, just like himself when he was learning the Shodaime's jutsus. There was nothing wrong with this because the Shodaime's jutsus were very complex and took a lot to learn, especially without someone to act as a guide. When the day ended Yamato said he would teach Naruto the next jutsu of the Shodaime tomorrow and that brought Naruto to now.

"Where is he?" Naruto asked out loud. "I hope he's not like Kakashi-sensei and always late."

"Normally being compared to Kakashi-sempai would be welcome," Yamato said from a tree branch above Naruto, "But when it comes his chronic tardiness it is a great insult."

"S…Sorry Yamato-sensei," Naruto apologized. "I just don't like that he's always so late."

Yamato just waved off the apology. "Are you ready for the jutsu I said I would show you?"

"You bet I am!" Naruto was literally bouncing wanting to learn a new jutsu. He could only imagine what it could be. The Shodaime's scrolls showed that the jutsus could do anything from creating a small forest, to creating a bushin made of wood, to even merging into a tree for spying.

"I know that you like to use Kage Bushin," Yamato began; Naruto smiled an anticipation as he caught on what the Anbu Captain was going to teach him. "So I think you can fully appreciate being able to use another type, one only you and I can use." Yamato paused for dramatic effect; he was a bit of a dramatic side to his personality. So he intentionally drew out what jutsu he was going to teach Naruto. "The Mokusei Bushin (Wooden Clone)."

"So what can the Mokusei Bushin do that other Bushins can't?" Naruto asked. He knew a Kage Bushin could act independently, it was solid, had a range of several kilometers and distributed chakra equally; its weakness was that it could only take one hit before it was defeated. A Mizu Bushin (Water Clone) was solid as well, could take a few blows before being defeated, and were easy to make as long as there was plenty of water around; its weakness was they were one-tenth the original's strength and limited range. A regular Bushin was just an illusion nothing more.

"The Mozuko Bushin is made of wood and needs a supply of wood near by to form only you can only form a handful regardless of how much chakra you use," Yamato lectured. "Those are its primary weaknesses. Its strength is that it is very difficult to defeat and destroy, has the same range and independence of a Kage Bushin and can perform limited Mokudon (Wood Type) jutsus itself."

"Cool!" Naruto exclaimed. "Come show me!"

"Alright calm down," Yamato said. "Watch closely, the hand seals are, Tora (Tiger), Inu (Dog), Ryu (Dragon), Tora, Tori (Bird). Mokusei Bushin no Jutsu!" From a large tree near by a human form slowly immerged from the trunk. It quickly took the shape of Yamato and then the color changed to match Yamato's appearance preciously. "Now you try."

Naruto nodded and performed the hand seals, "Mokusei Bushin no Jutsu!" A leg and arm started to appear out of another tree but after they passed the knee and elbow the two limbs stopped forming started to decay and fell away from the tree like a dead branch.

"This is going to take a while," Yamato said with a sweat drop on the back of his head.

At Konoha Hospital Sakura was once again paying a visit to Sasuke who was still recovering. As she approached the room she saw Ino coming out of a room down the hall. Knowing that was not Sasuke's room she wondered what Ino was doing in there. "Ino-Pig what are you doing here?"

"Well Forehead-Girl I came to visit Chouji and Sasuke-kun," Ino answered.

"Chouji?" Sakura asked. "Was he injured during training or something?"

"No nothing like that," Ino waved off Sakura's concern. "He just ate too much again." She let out a sigh at the last part because no matter what she was sure Chouji would be here again for the same reason. Deciding to change the subject Ino asked, "So has Naruto shown you his new jutsu yet?"

"New jutsu?" Sakura asked. "Oh you mean his summon. Yeah he showed me, not really all that impressive all he did was summon this obnoxious red toad that could only weigh a couple of kilos." Sakura shuddered at the thought of the toad, she never really like them.

"Oh no I don't mean that I mean the one he learned when he left the Village a few months ago," Ino corrected.

"Um no he hasn't," Sakura admitted. Truth be told she had seen the other male member of Team 7 in days, not since Sasuke was healed by Tsunade. "Just how did you find out that he had a new jutsu?"

"I saw him practicing it," Ino answered. "You should see it, it's really powerful."

Inside his room Sasuke was overhearing the conversation from the two girls. His attention was epically caught when Ino mentioned Naruto having a new powerful jutsu. "How can Naruto keep getting so strong?" Sasuke thought. The memory of the fight against Gaara and the insane amount of power Naruto displayed came to the forefront. "And now he appears to have another powerful jutsu." He clenched his fist in anger at the thought of Naruto being stronger than he was. "I have to be stronger."

Back in the forest Naruto was panting as he leaned against the tree. He had been working like a man possessed to learn the jutsu. All around him there were pieces of rotted wood laid about from his unsuccessful attempts. Yamato had to admit he was impressed by the boy's determination to learn the jutsu. Most would have become frustrated and given up after so many failures Naruto just seemed to push himself more every time he messed up. "That's enough for now Naruto your chakra is to low to use the jutsu," Yamato said.

"I…I c…can still…go on," Naruto panted. He did the hand seals once again. Only this time instead of feeling his chakra pass through his body he felt the Kyuubi's. "Mokusei Bushin no Jutsu!"

Yamato felt the Kyuubi's chakra flow just before called out the jutsu. He was ready to intervene incase the chakra overwhelmed him but that never happened. Instead he saw two pairs of arms and legs come out of one of the larger trees in the area. Soon two torsos emerged followed by two heads that looked like Naruto. The colors changed and two exact duplicates of Naruto were standing in front of Yamato. "Well done Naruto," Yamato.

"Yes I did it," one of the Mokusei Bushins said.

"No you didn't I did!" the original Naruto did.

"I thought I did it," the second Mokusei said.

Yamato developed a sweat drop as Naruto and the duplicates started to get into an argument about which was the real one and did the jutsu. "Um Naruto," Yamato called.

"Yes Sensei," the three answered.

"Why don't you dismiss the Bushins and that should solve the…disagreement," Yamato instructed. Naruto complied and the two Bushins decayed like old branches and broke a part. "I think this is enough for a while. Later this week after you've had a chance to rest I'll show you the next jutsu that will grow a tree to the right size for the Bushins. It's actually a combination jutsu of the Seicho and the Mokusei Bushin. It will grow a tree that will immediately turn into the Bushin. It requires a lot more control so you'll have to work on that. But practicing the Seicho jutsu will help that, so keep at it."

"Thanks Yamato-sensei I'll see you later!" Naruto waved as he ran off.

"After all that he still has the energy to run off like that?" Yamato wondered. "Guess that's the stamina Tsunade-sama told me about." He could not help but smile at Naruto's enthusiasm.

The next day Naruto was feeling just as energetic as he usually did after a night of rest. He had not seen any of his teammates in the last few days so he headed for the Hospital to find them. Walking up to the entrance he spotted Sakura about to enter, "Good morning Sakura-chan!"

"Oh hello Naruto," Sakura greeted. She did not yell at him this morning because he was not interrupting her talking to Sasuke and she was trying to be nice to him because he saved her from Gaara. She still had yet to thank him and planned to do it now. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to see you and Sasuke," Naruto said. "I wanted to see how the Teme was doing."

"Don't call Sasuke-kun that," Sakura yelled. Her desire to defend her crush overriding her pervious plan to thank Naruto for saving her.

"We…well let's go see how he's doing," Naruto suggested not wanting to get hit by an irate Sakura. Sakura turned and entered the Hospital without another word showing she was going to ignore Naruto for his comment.

As soon as Naruto and Sakura entered Sasuke's room Sakura greeted him and started talking about how soon he would get out of there. Sasuke for his part was not paying attention as his sole focus was on Naruto. "Naruto," he said shutting Sakura up, "Fight me, right now!"

"Sasuke-kun you can't you're still not better," Sakura objected.

"Sakura-chan's right you're not…" Naruto agreed but was cut off by Sasuke.

"You said you wanted to fight me in the Chunin Exam now's your chance," Sasuke countered.

Naruto could tell that Sasuke was not going to back down. And to be honest Naruto wanted to fight Sasuke as well, so he agreed, "You're on."

They picked the roof not wanting to put the fight off any longer. Before they started Naruto said, "Funny isn't it. I'm actually overjoyed that I finally have a chance to defeat you."

Sasuke's Sharingan flared into existence because of his anger at Naruto's proclamation. "What did you say?" Sasuke asked angrily. "You're talking nonsense Dobe!"

"I'm no longer the 'Dobe' you knew!" Naruto returned. "I've changed, a lot."

"You're certainly full of yourself," Sasuke said.

"You're not acting like yourself," Naruto prodded. "Afraid you'll get a challenge out of me?"

"Shut up and fight!" Sasuke yelled.

"Before we do put on your Hitai-Ate (Forehead Protector)," Naruto instructed.

"Why should I do that?" Sasuke asked. "You won't even land a single finger on my forehead!"

"It's not about that," Naruto said. "It's a symbol of us being equal as Konoha shinobi."

"That's why you're so full of yourself!" Sasuke yelled. "You think you're on par with me?"

"Of course I do!" Naruto yelled back. "In fact I never though of myself as inferior to you, not once!"

"You're starting to piss me off!" Sasuke said.

"That's because you're still weak, Sasuke-'chan'!" Naruto countered.

Both of the anger reached the boiling point and the charged each other as fast as they could. When they reached one another both punched and caught the other's hand and exchanged in a brief contest of strength trying to push the other back. It became apparent that bother were equal as neither lost ground so the broke a part and jumped back. Naruto was the one that decided to start using jutsus first, "Tajyuu Kage Bushin no Jutsu! (Mass Shadow Clone)" Soon the entire roof of the Hospital was covered in Kage Bushins and they all started to attack the Uchiha.

Sasuke was not threatened and began taking the clones apart with Gouken (Iron Fist). He spun and kicked the first clone that approached sending it into three others taking them out. Another pair came in but Sasuke was able to predict what they were doing because of the Sharingan. He countered their attack by doing a handstand and spinning his feet like a helicopter propeller destroying them and five others. This continued for ten seconds until one Kage Bushin got behind Sasuke and stunned him long enough for four others to kick him into the air.

"U..ZU…MA…KI," the clones began trying to catch Sasuke in the combo. "Naruto Rendan! (Combo)"

Sasuke was able to block the final blow and send the Kage Bushin down to the roof. He quickly form hand seals ending in the Tora Seal, "Katon: Goukakyou no Jutsu!" The massive ball of fire shot down at the mass of Kage Bushins destroying them instantly. When the smoke cleared there was two Narutos left. One had his palm up and the other was forming a ball in the palm. "This must be his new jutsu," Sasuke thought. He was surprised that even though he could see the chakra moving he was not able to copy the jutsu at all. "Damn!" He grabbed his wrist and chakra began to ark like lighting, "Chidori!"

Naruto had finished forming his jutsu right before Sasuke started Chidori. He jumped into the air as Sasuke fell thrusting his palm forward, "Rasengan!"

The two Gennins were moving right towards each other and were going to hit. Sakura who had been stunned up to this point yelled out, "STOP IT!" She ran in between the two boys trying to stop them.

"Can't move out of the way!" both Sasuke and Naruto thought at the same time.

Fortunately for them they did not have to as Kakashi dashed in front of Sakura caught their wrists, spun and threw them at the pair of water towers on the roof. Sasuke's Chidori plunged into his tower creating a large hole. Naruto's Rasengan collided with the other tower producing a small dent a little bigger than his palm. Sasuke saw this and smirked, "Not as strong as he thought."

Kakashi had noticed Naruto's jutsu as it hit the water tower, "He knows Rasengan?" he thought. "What do you two think you're doing? You're fighting in a to extreme way, both of you!" He focused approached Sasuke and leapt up onto his tower, "Sasuke I did not give you the Chidori to use against you're companions, especially those from Konoha." Sasuke just scowled at Kakashi who asked, "Are you trying to kill Naruto?"

Sasuke did not answer, instead he jumped off the roof on to roof next to the hospital. When he landed and looked up what he saw shocked him. The entire backside of the water tower Naruto hit was completely blown out, "Naruto's jutsu did that?" He was awed by the power and the implication the scene before him showed. It demonstrated that Naruto's jutsu did more internal damage than external making far more lethal than the Chidori. His anger rose once again and he jumped away. "When did Naruto become so strong?"

"I suppose you taught Naruto that jutsu?" Kakashi asked Jiraiya who was standing below the water tower. "You should not have taught Naruto such an advanced jutsu. Even if it is to protect him from Akatsuki, its too much for him."

"The same could be said about you teaching Sasuke Chidori," Jiraiya countered. "Besides who I teach and what I teach is my business Kakashi, not yours."

" Naruto is my student," Kakashi argued.

"Yeah that's why you got some else to teach him," Jiraiya said sarcastically. "He found me after you dumped him on Ebisu and I decided to train him. Its your own fault that he sought another sensei, for not teaching him. Besides what Naruto needs to learn now, you can't teach him and you know it."

Kakashi did not like what Jiraiya was saying but he had no way to argue against either. Everything he said was the cold honest truth. "I have a mission I need to do," Kakashi said. Jumping off the tower and landing next to Sakura. "Sakura don't worry everything will be back to normal now." Sakura whipped her eyes and gave a nod, but on the inside she believed that it could never go back normal now. Truth be told, Kakashi would have agreed with Sakura if he knew her thoughts.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and only use it for entertainment purposes.

Sasuke had just finished working himself into near complete exhaustion. It had been a two days since the fight with Naruto on the roof of the hospital and he was still angry. Angry at Naruto for growing so much in such a short time, angry at Kakashi for not training him better, but mostly angry at himself for feeling the inadequacies he was forced to endure, and angry because at the moment he ran into his brother again after so many years there was still such a huge gap between them. After the fight on the roof Kakashi had tracked Sasuke down, tied him up, and lectured him about giving up on his revenge. Easier said than done, as Sasuke had only lived for revenge ever since the massacre of his Clan. "He says we're the same," Sasuke thought. "What would he know about my pain?" The more Sasuke thought about his sensei the angrier he got. Even with Kakashi's strongest jutsu he was not strong enough. "He can't give me what I need to kill Itachi, but then who can?"

He then started thinking of Naruto's growth over the time since the beginning of the Chunin Exam. He knew that Kakashi was not the one that trained Naruto, the Copy-nin was with him the entire time. What he wanted to know was just who had trained Naruto during that time. "That white haired guy," Sasuke concluded. "He took Naruto away from the Village right after the funeral of the Sandaime. He must have been the one to train him. The question is who is he?" Sasuke remembered the brief confrontation with Itachi at the hotel and focused on the white haired man's entrance. "He said his name was Jiraiya. Why does that feel so familiar?" His eyes widen when it finally occurred to him, "How could I forget, Jiraiya of the Legendary Sennin? That Dobe got one of the Sennin to train him. If a Sennin made him so strong then…" He reached for the Curse Seal close to the base of his neck on his back.

Further thoughts were cut off several shuriken flew in his direction. He nimbly jumped out of the way only to be hit by a kick from behind. He easily recovered and landed on a tree nearby. When Sasuke saw that he was now facing four enemies and from their Hitai-Ate's they were from Oto (Sound) Village. Remembering that Oto-nins in the Chunin Exam targeted him, he became wary. "So this is Uchiha Sasuke," the only girl of the group said. "I'm not as impressed as I thought I'd be."

Sasuke still feeling the shame of having so much trouble against Naruto rushed at the enemies. The exchange was quick and furious; Sasuke, his Sharingan activated, attacked the largest one first, kicking him in the face sending him crashing into a wall. The one with six arms came from Sasuke's right only to have Sasuke dodge in between his six arms and deliver a strong punch to the abdomen making him hunch over. The one that looked to have two head attacked next and Sasuke dodged the kick and was about to counter when a second pair of arms came out of the body surprising him. The second set of arms blocked Sasuke's punch and the first set knocked him into the air. From there the girl was able to nick him with several kunai just as the large man, who had recovered, slammed him back down to the tree.

Knowing that he needed to move faster Sasuke started channeling chakra through out his body. Unfortunately because of his earlier training his chakra reserves were low, as a result the Curse Seal started to spread. At first Sasuke did not notice and he felt invigorated and continued his attack. With his Sharingan and the Curse Seal on he made short work of the four Oto-nins. Or at least that was what it looked like. After kicking the girl into the pile of the other three, Sasuke was shocked to see all four disappear leaving a log in their place. That was when the Curse Seal started to burn forcing Sasuke to drop to his knees. "That was better," the voice of the one with two heads said. Sasuke struggled to turn around and was surprised again to see them with their own Curse Seals activated. "But it appears that unlike us you don't have control over your Curse Seal. We can help you with that."

"Why would you want to help me after attacking me?" Sasuke said after he forced the Curse Seal back.

"We were sent by Orochimaru-sama to retrieve you," the one with six arms answered. "You have impressed us, Sasuke-sama." The four then dropped to their knees showing their submission to Sasuke. "We the Oto-Four decided that if you proved worthy we would swear our allegiance to you."

"You showed us your strength and now we pledge ourselves to you," the girl said.

"We can help you with your Curse Seal," the two headed on spoke again. "We can upgrade it two Level Two like ours and it will give you great power." That truly caught Sasuke's attention, "After we upgrade your Curse Seal we can take you to Orochimaru-sama and he can give you even greater power."

"Power," Sasuke thought. "That is what I need. Naruto became strong after training under the weakest of the Sennin. I will gain greater power by training under the strongest."

At the same time Sasuke was fighting the Oto-Four, Naruto was returning from his own training. When he woke up this morning he found a note and small scroll on his table waiting for him. They were from Yamato, the note explained that he had an urgent mission and could not help him with the training like he said he would. Instead he left a jutsu scroll of another jutsu Naruto could learn on his own. It was the advanced version of Seicho (Growth) called Seicho Eda (Growth of the Branches). The note went on to explain that this was the first half of the training for the jutsu that would make a Mokusei Bushin (Wooden Clone) from a plant Naruto produced. The new jutsu provided more wood than Seicho alone could produce which was fundamental in the Mokusei Bushin.

Naruto could use the Seicho **Eda** and then a Mokusei Bushin from that. The down side to this tactic was that it used more chakra and took greater time. Still it would work and was useful for Naruto's training. So Naruto spent the entire day working on the jutsu and had only managed to finally master it an hour ago. He felt proud of himself for his latest success and not just because it would make him stronger. He felt proud because he finally felt he was starting to live up the potential that was passed down from his mother.

Naruto went over to his bed and pushed it aside. Under it he lifted up a loose floorboard and took out a small strong box . After fishing out a small key from inside a hidden pocket in his pant leg Naruto undid the lock. Inside he took out his most prized position, a picture of a woman with light brown hair, a pretty face and eyes as blue as his. It was a picture of his mother, the only one he had. It was given to him when he was seven as a birthday present from the Sandaime. He treasured the only image the woman that gave him life that he only brought it out on rare occasion. With a sad smile he spoke, "Are you proud of me Okasan (Mother)? Am I living up to what you though I could be? Are you happy for what I've done?" Obviously there was no answer but to Naruto it still felt like he had received a yes for each question.

Naruto spent countless hours pondering what his life would have been like if his mother had lived. He wondered how different his life would be if he had someone to come home to. Someone that would make him feel better when he all the glares and hate forced upon him when he was younger. What kind of person he would be now? There was never an answer to those questions. One thing Naruto never did, however, was to dwell on those questions for long at any one time. He knew better than anyone that a person could not live in the past. Naruto knew one never got anywhere by going backwards so he pushed on everyday of his life.

In reality this was what truly separated Naruto from the people he met with painful pasts. Where they would dwell on the pain he would push forward, growing from the experience, pushing and living for the next day. Making him that much stronger than the people like Sasuke, who only lived in the past instead of in the present and for the future.

The next day it was early morning when Tsunade received the disturbing news. That four Oto-nins attacked a squad of Jounin and that Uchiha Sasuke was missing. Knowing that Orochimaru wanted the last Uchiha she could easily conclude that Sasuke was with them. And if what Sakura had said to Shizune when her assistant found her near Team 7's training ground was true, then he went voluntarily.

The major dilemma she now faced was who to send after the Oto-nins. This would be an A-Class Retrieval Mission and it should go a squad of Anbu or Jounin. Unfortunately for her there were none available as they were all doing their own missions at this time. Even sending squads of Chunin was not viable because of the state Konoha was in. The option of letting them go was not even considered, Orochimaru must not get his hands of the Sharingan. If he did the consequences would be dire. That left her with only one option, Gennin. And the idea left a very foul taste in her mouth.

"You wanted to see me Tsunade-sama?" a very bored voice asked followed by a large yawn.

"Yes, Nara Shikamaru I have an A-Class Mission for you," Tsunade said. Her voice was like iron causing Shikamaru's normally slouched posture to straighten knowing this was incredibly serious.

Not more than ten minutes later Shikamaru was standing outside Naruto's apartment waiting for the loudest shinobi in the village to answer the door. Tsunade briefed him on he situation and told him he had one hour to gather as many strong Gennins as possible and set off in pursuit of the Oto-nins, try and slow them down until back up could arrive and prevent then from leaving Fire Country. The only request she made in the line up was to get Naruto on the mission. Shikamaru had to question the wisdom, though he kept it to himself, in bring Naruto. He knew Naruto had become very strong, the match against Neji was proof enough, but Naruto was known for making rash decisions. Something that would be a hindrance on this mission. Still he had his orders and thus found himself waiting outside Naruto's door.

After several moment Naruto groggily opened his door, "Eh? Shikamaru, what are you doing here?"

"This is so troublesome," Shikamaru sighed. "We have a mission. Sasuke was taken by four Oto-nins and Tsunade-sama has ordered me to get as many strong Gennins as I could to go after them."

"What?" came Naruto's predicable loud reply, "Sasuke's gone! Hold on I'll be right out!" He slammed his door shut and several noises of crashes and curses followed. After only ten seconds Naruto was back out the door fully clothed with all his supplies ready to do. "So who are we taking?"

Naruto's answer came a few minutes later outside of Chouji's house. "Here Naruto, help me eat this," Shikamaru said giving Naruto a bag up chips. Naruto was very confused, but because he skipped breakfast he complied.

A few minutes later Chouji's door burst open and the plump Gennin stormed out, "I'll never let anyone have the last chip!" He snatched the chip from Naruto's hand and proceeded to try and eat it, only to have it snatched out of his hand by a white blur. "Who's the dirty thief that stole my chip?"

"Hey what's going on?" Kiba asked as Akamaru ate the stolen chip. After a brief explanation of the mission Kiba said. "Count me in, can't let Naruto show me up again." He then thought for a minute, "We should probably get Shino as well."

"I thought about getting Shino but he is on a mission with his Otousan (Father)," Shikamaru answered. "I came for Chouji because I know I can work with him. Come up we don't have much time left."

The three Gennins, one Chunin and one dog ran off for the Konoha's Main Gates. Along the way they ran into another pair of Gennins, Neji and Lee. Another brief explanation and Neji joined the hunt with Lee declining to go because of his injuries. At the Gate they paused for one final check of supplies. This was when Sakura showed up, "Naruto," she addressed her voice cracked in sadness, "I couldn't stop Sasuke-kun. Only you can bring him back now. Please bring him back."

"Don't worry Sakura-chan," Naruto assured. "I'll bring him back, promise of a life time." Naruto gave her a thumps up for emphasis, a pose he copied from Lee and Gai minus the glimmering teeth and crashing waves.

"Alright listen up," Shikamaru said. "We'll be using a line formation. It's the hardest to maintain but it will keep us all in close proximity to one another and is the fastest way to travel. The set up will be Kiba and Akamaru in the front, they can track the best and alert us to any traps or ambushes that we may encounter. Next will be me, I'll be in perfect position to hear Kiba's warning and issue orders. Next will be Naruto, with the Kage Bushins (Shadow Clones) and stamina he is the best to back up where ever it is needed. Next will be Chouji, he is the slowest of us but also has the most power so he'll protect us from behind. And in the last position will be Neji, with the Byakugan he can watch out behind us and warn us incase of a rear attack."

After the explanation Neji and the others were quite impressed, "He only had a few seconds to come up with this formation and did it near perfectly. No wonder he was made a Chunin."

"Now I never really liked Sasuke," Shikamaru said. "And quite frankly I find him very troublesome. But he is a fellow Konoha shinobi and that makes him a comrade, we will get him back." The others agreed and soon sped off to retrieve the missing Gennin.

Soon the five young shinobi came across a large area filled with traps. The only thing that kept them from being caught was the warning from Akamaru. After a complete scan of the area by Neji's Byakugan they found that the range of traps was so big that by the time they went around it was a good chance the Oto-nins would be well out of Fire Country by then. So with no other option they entered the trap area moving at a walking pace in order to avoid the lethal traps.

After an hour of walking they finally left the trap field but not without several close calls. Including a complex three-layered trap wire that Naruto almost triggered. Thanks to Shikamaru and the Kagemane (Shadow Bind) the trap was not set off. Once they were in the clear Neji scanned ahead of them with the telescopic aspect of his Clan's unique eyes. "They are approximately five kilometers ahead of us," he informed. "They appear to be taking a rest. I do not see Uchiha thought. The largest one is carrying some kind of barrel however." He focused on the barrel and penetrated the surface with the X-ray like aspect of the Byakugan. "There is some strange chakra inside the barrel, as well as a person. I believe it is Uchiha."

"Alright we need to do this carefully," Shikamaru ordered. "We have surprise so far and we need to keep it. These guys are probably Jounin at least. So we need every advantage we can get, so here is what we'll do…"

Ten minutes later the Oto-Four appeared to be relaxing a little eating some camp rations. This was all an act because the one with six arms had set up early warning traps made out of spider webs all around their camp. The team from Konoha tripped theses early warnings and the Oto-Four were waiting for them. When the five were close enough they quickly got to their feet and surrounded them. The one with silver/grey hair spoke, "Thought you could sneak up on us? How amusing?" He nodded to the other three and all drew their kunai and launched them at the Konoha-nins.

Neji, Naruto and Kiba were able to jump away but Shikamaru was not so lucky. Or at least that was the appearance, as soon as Chouji and Shikamaru were hit they disappeared into bursts of smoke, "Kage Bushins?" the woman said. When she and the others tried to turn to they found they could not.

The reason became clear as a shadow line was connected to each other their own shadows. "Heh, it worked," Shikamaru said stepping into the clearing with Neji, Kiba and Chouji. The others burst into smoke revealing Kage Bushins of Naruto smiling in success. "Looks like we got the drop on you."

"Did you?" the apparent leader, the one with silver hair, said. The confusion from the five of Konoha ended when Shikamaru was forced to disengaged his jutsu and jump away as a person just like the leader threw several kunai at him. "You didn't take into account of my brother." Everyone from Konoha was shocked to see the twin of the leader begin to merge into the leaders body.

"We need to get Orochimaru-sama's new vessel back to him," the large Oto-nin said. "You guys go ahead. I'll deal with them."

"Fine just don't get distracted in your snack, Fat-ass!" the girl said.

"Shut up Tayuya," the large one retorted. "Kidoumaru take the barrel." The one with six arms nodded and picked up the barrel that contained Sasuke.

When Naruto saw this he acted rashly and he and his Kage Bushins tried to rush Kidoumaru, only to have the large Oto-nin interrupt the charge and hit him back towards into the Kage Bushins destroying them in the process. "Fine you can have them Jiroubou," Kidoumaru said. "Have fun but don't hold us up."

The three Oto-nins jumped away and the Konoha shinobi made a move to follow. This was stopped by several shuriken and kunai from Jiroubou. "You five aren't going anywhere!" He made several fast hand seals before slamming his hands into the ground, "Doroudomo Doten Kekkai no Jutsu (Earth Barrier Clay Prison)!" A massive dome of earth emerged from the ground and quickly covered the one Chunin and four Gennin. Once the jutsu was complete Jiroubou smiled and licked his lips. "Now I'll feast on their chakra."

Inside the dome the confused Konoha heard the proclamation and became confused. That was until they felt their strength slowly start to fade. "What the hell is going on?" Kiba asked.

Neji activated his Byakugan and searched the earth barrier. "The dirt is saturated with chakra." He looked at his fellow Konoha shinobi and saw their chakra draining into the earth beneath them, "It's draining away all our chakra!"

The five became extremely worried now and desperate. Kiba acted first by giving Akamaru a Soldier Pill turning the white dog red, "Let's go Akamaru, Juujin Bunshin no Jutsu! (Beast Clone)." A burst of smoke later and there were now two Kibas instead of one. "Gatsugga! (Double Piercing Fang)" the tornado like Taijutsu technique slammed into the wall of the dome only to bounce off and hit another wall. This continued for several hits until Kiba and Akamaru could no longer maintain it due to the chakra drain. When the dog and his master finally stopped they saw several damaged sections all over the interior of the dome. Everyone felt some joy in the damage because if they could damage the dome in one spot they could break free. The joy was short lived however when the damage began to repair itself leaving the interior of the dome completely smooth.

At this point Shikamaru dropped into his thinking pose and started to made a plan for escape. Meanwhile Naruto cupped his hand and tried to start a Rasengan only to see the constant drain kept him from being the process. "Can't even form a Rasengan," Naruto thought.

Further thought was stopped when Shikamaru opened his eyes and called out, "Hey I need to talk to you! I would like to negotiate our release!"

"You are in no position to Negotiate," Jiroubou said from outside the dirt prison. "You'll all be dead in a matter of moments."

"That's where he is," Shikamaru thought. "He has to maintain a constant flow of chakra into the ground to keep the damage repaired. If I can find out the weakest point and we concentrate all our efforts there I know we can break out." He was about to explain his plan to the others when Naruto shouted.

"What are you stupid?" Naruto yelled. "There's no way he is going to let us out! We have to break out of here and get Sasuke back!"

"Naruto I have a plan…" Shikamaru whispered trying to calm Naruto down.

"We don't have time the longer we wait here the further away the others get with Sasuke!" Naruto said. His frustration at being trapped and the drain of his normal chakra started to cause Kyuubi's chakra to flow into his body. His features started to change but not enough to cause a significant change. "We need to get out now!" He started forming hand seals for his jutsu.

"Naruto wait…" Shikamaru tried again to stop Naruto only to be shocked by Konoha's most surprising ninja.

"Mokudon: Hijutsu Seicho Eda! (Wood Element Secret Skill: Growth of the Branches)" Naruto yelled slamming his hands into the ground. Because of the Kyuubi's chakra in his body the jutsu was far larger than it would normally be. Massive branches shot out of the ground strait up completely destroying the roof of the clay prison.

The others watched in awe Naruto with a question that had become increasingly common on their mind, "How did Naruto do that?"


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and only use it for entertainment purposes.

Naruto looked back one last time as Rock Lee took his stance against the Oto-nin known as Kaguya Kimimaru. Over the coarse of the past five hours Naruto had been progressively separated from his teammates as they encountered the shinobi that took Sasuke and just now Rock Lee showed up telling him to go after Sasuke while he took care of the bone using shinobi. Determination set in Naruto's eyes as he raced off to fulfill his promise to Sakura.

As he followed the path Sasuke left in Naruto's mind was able to drift back to what happened just after he and the others escaped from prison made of earth…

The Konoha Gennin were standing outside of the crumbled prison behind the tree Naruto caused to grow. The Gennin and even the Oto-nin were looking at him with awe and confusion. As the leader Shikamaru decided to take the initiative and ask, "Naruto, when did you learn to do that?"

Neji followed immediately with a question of his own, "A better question would be how you learned to use that jutsu? Only the Shodaime Hokage has been known to use the Mokudon (Wood Element) jutsus."

"Um guys I think we have more important to worry about," commented Kiba reminding the others they were in the middle of a battle during a high-class mission.

"We need to get Sasuke back," Naruto said trying to divert attention from him. "I'll tell you when we get back."

"This is so troublesome," Shikamaru grumbled. "Fine right after the mission you can tell us. Now how do we take care of this guy?"

"You guys go on ahead," Chouji stated. "I'll handle him."

"Chouji?" Shikamaru asked. He was worried about his friend knowing that the plump Gennin had wanted to prove himself ever since the Chunin Exam. Chouji had found his abilities somewhat lacking since then. Power like that displayed Lee, Naruto, Neji, and Sasuke would make just about anyone feel inferior. Shikamaru felt the same but with his intelligence he could hold his own, Chouji did not think he could.

"Trust me Shika, I won't loose to him," Chouji replied his voice and face were dead serious. He was going to beat the large Oto shinobi or die trying.

"All right Chouji we'll leave him to you," Shikamaru said. "Let's go guys we still need to get that troublesome Sasuke back." The others nodded and jumped away and Chouji began the of his young life…

Naruto knew that when this was all over he would have a lot of explaining to do, to Shikamaru and his friends like he promised and to Tsunade for revealing his Mokudon abilities. It would be rather difficult for Naruto to talk about especially to his friends. For as much as he wanted people to like him he hated talking about his past. He always felt if people knew just how bad it was they would pity him. Naruto wanted friendship not pity.

As he ran Naruto could not help but wonder what pushed Sasuke to leave the village. He was clear that Sasuke left on his own choice because otherwise he would not have run off after escaping from the barrel. "Just was are you thinking Sasuke?" Naruto thought.

About a kilometer ahead Sasuke had finally reached the border between Fire Country and Rice Field Country. As he stood near a good sized river's edge he hesitated for a moment wondering if his choice was the correct one. His pause was only momentary however as he crossed the border knowing that by doing so he would be declared a Nuke-nin and would probably be hunted down for the rest of his life. It was rather ironic that Sasuke did not see that in his need to destroy his brother he had become just like him, a traitor to Konoha.

Naruto arrived on the scene just as Sasuke crossed the border into Rice Field Country. "Sasuke!" Naruto called.

Sasuke stopped and turned to face Naruto. When he saw him Sasuke smirked at the arrival, "I knew he would show up. Now I can achieve the Mangekyou Sharingan. Combined with Orochimaru's Curse Seal I'll be stronger than Itachi."

When Naruto finally caught up to Sasuke he started to yell, "What the hell do you think you're doing running away from Konoha?"

"I'm not running Dobe," Sasuke answered. "I'm just seeking power to kill my brother. And if you plan to stop me then I'll just have to kill you." He gave no time for Naruto to think about what he said and attacked the blonde. He moved faster than Naruto previously saw and landed a hard punch to Naruto's stomach followed by a spinning back fist that sent Naruto close to the river's edge near two giant statues and a large waterfall.

Naruto quickly got to his feet just as Sasuke was upon him and dodged to his left to avoid Sasuke's sidekick. When he did Naruto countered with a sweep kick that kicked Sasuke off balance sending him to the ground. In his time with Yamato, Naruto not only learned new Mokudon (Wood Element) jutsus but also improved his Taijutsu as well. No one expect Yamato and Naruto actually knew this so Naruto caught Sasuke by surprise. But he would not do that again. "Kage Bushin no Jutsu! (Shadow Clone)," five more Naruto's appeared in a puff of smoke and they all charged Sasuke.

Sasuke was able to roll out of the way before the first Naruto was at him. As he stood up and blocked the punch from the Naruto and with a palm to the face destroyed that one in a burst of smoke. Two others followed soon after with a kick to face and an elbow to the head. The last three were able to land two punches and a kick to Sasuke's knee once again dropping to the ground.

As Sasuke fell to one knee Naruto tried to kick him in the face. Sasuke was able to punch Naruto in the stomach destroying yet another clone. When he looked around he saw the other two Naruto's a few paces back. He recognized what they were doing from the rooftop, "It's that jutsu again," Sasuke thought. He quickly turned on his Sharingan and performed the hand seals necessary for his strongest attack, "Chidori!"

"Rasengan!" Naruto said as he completed the jutsu. The Kage Bushin grabbed Naruto by free hand spun and threw Naruto at Sasuke as the Uchiha ran at him at top speed.

The collision between the jutsus caused a huge explosion that knocking Naruto and Sasuke back. Sasuke was blown into a near by tree but Naruto being near the river was blown back into the water. He was soon carried down stream and towards the waterfall. He had not regained enough of his senses to avoid falling off the waterfall but was recovered quickly enough to control his fall and splash down into the lake below the waterfall with minimal damage to his body.

When Sasuke recovered he saw Naruto go over the edge and raced to side of the cliff to see Naruto land relatively safely below. He glanced down at his hand thinking, "That jutsu is stronger than mine. The only reason the match up was equal was because I have greater accuracy with my Sharingan." Needing to finish the fight Sasuke raced down the side of the cliff activating his Curse Seal for more power and greater speed. Soon he was running across the surface of the lake, he was able to do this because he copied the skill just a few minutes ago from Naruto. He was able to catch Naruto off guard and picked him up by the collar of his orange jacket as he powered up his Chidori a second time.

Naruto felt his body being lifted by a strong grip. When he looked at the person who was lifting him up his eyes widened seeing the Curse Seal activated on Sasuke, "Sasuke what…AAAAAAARRRHHHHHHHH!" Naruto's question was cut off as Sasuke jammed his chakra-powered hand into Naruto's body.

Sasuke had to smirk as he plunged his hand into to Naruto's chest. The wound was fatal and even if there were a medical-nin close by there would be no possible way to heal the wound in time. "You were able to dodge my Chidori at the last second and avoided the instant kill," Sasuke said. "But you're lung has been almost completely destroyed and you can't use you're right arm either. You won't even be able to use any jutsu now." He extracted his hand but was still holding Naruto up with the other. "You'll be dead in a matter of…moments…"

Sasuke trailed off as he felt Naruto begin to stir with the wound and the blood loss Naruto should not have been able to move at all. At this moment, however, he started to reach for Sasuke's hand with his own. As he brought his hand up Sasuke took note that it was not a normal hand that gripped his wrist, the hand no longer contained blunt fingernails but instead possessed flesh-rendering claws. As Naruto began to squeeze Sasuke felt pain shoot through his wrist. When he looked at Naruto's face he saw blood red eyes with cat-like pupil and sharper fangs then he had ever seen on any Inuzuka. Naruto let out a demonic growl as Sasuke struggled to get free, "**I won't let you leave Sasuke**."

Sasuke feeling fear from the voice and the amount of chakra Naruto was radiating desperately looked for a way to extract himself from Naruto's vice grim. Thinking quickly Sasuke kicked at Naruto's injured chest and black flipped away to land in the water. During the flip he activated his Sharingan just in case Naruto pulled off some kind of surprise. When he looked upon Naruto he gasped as he saw a strange red chakra collecting at the wound and healing it at an impossible rate. When the hole was fully healed Sasuke was further surprised as the level chakra began to rise and the form of a gigantic nine-tailed kitsune (fox) appeared in his vision. The force started to ripple outward from Naruto causing the lake they were fighting on to white capping and gale force winds blowing out in all direction. "Wha…what are you?" Sasuke demanded.

Naruto's response did not come in words, instead it came in the form of a loud inhuman growl/yell, "**AAAAAAARRRRRRGGGG**!" In the blink of an eye Naruto was upon Sasuke and delivered a bone crushing punch to Sasuke's stomach. The Uchiha skipped across the lake and rolled onto the bank. He did not get any time to recover as Naruto was in front of him once again delivering a kick to his chin followed by two successive punches and followed spin kick that sent Sasuke crashing into the cliff wall behind the fighting pair.

Even with his Sharingan activated he was not able to keep his vision clear. The strength of the hits and the impact into the cliff face left his sight blurry. When his eyes cleared enough he saw Naruto charging him once again. Flashing through hand seals he called out, "Katon: Housenka no Jutsu! (Fire Element: Phoenix Fire)." The medium sized fire balls blasted out of Sasuke's mouth directly at Naruto. The reason Sasuke did not use his usual Goukakyuu no Jutsu (Grand Fireball) was at close range the several medium fireballs did more damage than the single large one. Every fireball hit Naruto dead on sending him crashing back into the lack giving Sasuke some breathing room. Because Sasuke was still dizzy he tried to clear his vision by focusing more chakra into his eyes. When he did this he eyes started to burn for a brief second and then his sight became clearer than it had ever been. Sasuke knew instantly what had happened, he finally mastered his Sharingan.

Naruto stood up as soon as he hit the water. The burns he sustained from the barrage of fireballs were already healing because of Kyuubi's chakra. When he stood up right he charged once again as he saw Sasuke flinch in pain for some reason. He was hoping to use the distraction to get the drop on him. When his fist was about to connect to the Uchiha, the Kyuubi vessel was shocked when Sasuke easily dodged the fist and stepped into his guard to deliver a nasty kick to his chest. As Naruto stumbled back Sasuke continued his assault with a three hit combo that sent Naruto into the air. While he was in the air Naruto went to his most familiar hand seal, "Kage Bushin no Jutsu! (Shadow Clone)." The duplicates and Naruto dropped onto the ground and started to attack in a group.

With his fully developed Sharingan Sasuke was able to predict where the each and every strike was coming from. The result was that none of Naruto's attacks landed a clean hit and the Kage Bushins were quickly destroyed. When Naruto was the only one left Sasuke took out several shuriken and attacked thin mettle wires to them. With three in each hand Sasuke threw the shuriken at Naruto. Naruto tried to dodge but Sasuke anticipated his movements and directed the shuriken to intercept him. Soon Naruto found himself wrapped in the wires unable to move. "I told you, you're not anywhere near my level," Sasuke gloated as he began rapid and rather numerous hand seals before saying, "Katon: Ryuuka no Jutsu (Dragon Fire)." A massive blast of fire rushed down the wires and exploded as it hit Naruto's body slamming him into a massive boulder. Sasuke dropped to the ground from the chakra needed for the jutsu.

As Naruto began to loose consciousness he found himself in mental landscape that appeared to be a dungeon holding the strongest of the Bijuu (Tailed Beasts) prisoner. When he looked up he saw the demonic gaze of the Kyuubi staring down at him. "**That was pathetic**," the Kyuubi said. "**Let me show you what my power is truly capable of.**" The Kyuubi the willed more chakra than it ever did through the bars of his cage and directly towards Naruto.

On the outside Sasuke was finally standing up and was about to finish Naruto off in order to claim his Mangekyou Sharingan when he saw the strange red chakra begin to bubble out once again. As he watched he saw the chakra become semi-solid and coat around Naruto's body. "So this is why Itachi want's him," Sasuke thought. "It has to be this strange power that Naruto possesses."

Naruto slowly began to stand as the chakra took the rough outline of the kitsune. When he saw Sasuke he dashed at him on all fours even faster than before. Sasuke saw the blow that was coming and attempted to dodge. It surprised him that at the last moment the chakra itself shifted and slammed directly into face. "**You're not getting away Sasuke, I promised Sakura-chan I would bring you back and I'm going to keep that promise!**"

Sasuke grunted from the pain as he stood up and regarded the demonic blonde. "I was right wasn't it," Sasuke said causing Naruto to stop. "This power is the reason my brother wants you. This makes you special, but," as he said this the black marks of the Curse Seal began spread once again. However unlike when the fight began the marks began to merge covering his entire body. Soon Sasuke's skin started to change its pigment and his hair doing the same as it grew longer. This was not the most disturbing sight however as the back of Sasuke's shirt started to rip apart and two giant webbed hand like wings shot out. "…**I have become even more special than you**!" He started to perform four hand seals and his right hand grabbed the left as black chakra started to ark like lighting, "**Let us find out who is stronger Naruto!**" He charged Naruto dragging his hand creating a massive trench as he went. "**Chidori**!"

Naruto narrowed his eyes as Sasuke charged him. He knew he had to stop Sasuke and quickly formed a plan and started to perform hand seals for a very unique jutsu. "**You better believe I'll show you who's stronger**!"

Sasuke watched the unfamiliar seal sequence and was even more surprised as he did not understand how the chakra was molded. He attributed it to the red chakra Naruto was generating so he ignored it. He increased his speed just as Naruto slammed his hands into the ground, "A Doton (Earth Element) jutsu?" he thought.

"**Mokudon: Koeda Shibaru no Jutstu! (Wood Element: Branch Bind Skill)**," Naruto said as he slammed his hands into the ground. The Kyuubi's chakra made the jutsu much stronger then when he used it against Kabuto and branches the size of small tree trunks shot out of the ground wrapping around Sasuke's torso stopping his run.

"Impossible!" Sasuke thought. As the top student at the Academy he knew Konoha history nearly inside and out. So he knew of the Shodaime's legendary ability to control wood. The fact that Naruto performed the jutsu was inconceivable in his mind.

While Sasuke was immobilized Naruto lifted his hand with palm up. Sasuke's Chidori was still activated and it could be used break the wooded bindings easily so he had to finish this fight now while he had the chance. So he focused collecting chakra into the palm of his hand and began to spin and compress the chakra, "**Rasengan!**" He made the four steps that were in-between him and the bound Sasuke and shoved the purple (because of a mixture of his chakra and the Kyuubi's) ball into his stomach. At the last moment he remembered his promise to Sakura and pulled back just slightly so the jutsu would not enter his body and not kill him. The wind caused by the jutsu ripped apart the branches and caused Sasuke to fly back and knocking him as he hit the ground.

As Sasuke passed out the Kyuubi stopped sending its chakra to Naruto. When the red fox form faded from view. The loss of chakra caused Naruto to drop to his knees in exhaustion, channeling that much chakra for so long would take its toll on even a veteran Jounin. "Teme's (Bastard) more trouble than he's worth," Naruto said just as he joined Sasuke in unconsciousness.

In the middle of the vast forests of that surrounding Konoha Kakashi traveled at a fast pace following his nin-dog Pakkun. He had returned from an S-Class Mission only to hear that Sasuke had left the village and a team of Gennins went after him. He was extremely angry at the news because a mission like this should have been assigned to Jounins or Anbu. He did not say anything because he knew how stretched Konoha's forces were. Still that did not stop him from going after his students.

Along the way he summoned his tracking dogs and soon Pakkun was able to pick up their scent. "Kakashi," Pakkun said. "I can smell the moisture in the air starting to rise. It's going to rain soon."

"We need to hurry up then before the scents are washed away," Kakashi ordered as he and the dog increased their speed.

Nearly an hour of traveling at top speed later Kakashi and Pakkun arrived at the Valley of the End. What he saw shocked him because of the level of devastation done to the surrounding area. "Did Sasuke and Naruto do this?" Kakashi silently asked himself.

"Kakashi their scents are coming from down there," Pakkun informed by pointing his paw down to the lake below.

Kakashi ran up to the edge and saw only one Gennin lying unconscious on the shore below. The Gennin was Naruto, worried for his loudest student Kakashi ran down the side of the cliff with Pakkun right behind him. When they landed by the edge of the lake he looked around taking noticed the distinctive signs of the jutsu's they used, "Sasuke looked like he used Chidori from the trench and Naruto used his Mokudon jutsus then the Rasengan if the damage is any indication. But where's Sasuke?"

"Kakashi," Pakkun said, "There's a third scent here."

"Do you know who it belongs to?" Kakashi asked.

Pakkun took a couple of sniffs before answering, "I believe its Kabuto's." Just as he said this, the rain started to fall washing away any chance of following after.

Author's Note: I left the fights the same from the time of the flash back up to the time Naruto confronted Sasuke.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and only use it for entertainment purposes.

There was a very tense atmosphere around Konoha Hospital. Several of the Village's most talented up incoming shinobi arrived in critical condition. The ones with the heaviest injuries were Akamichi Chouji and Hyuuga Neji. For the past twelve hours the Medic-Nins worked non-stop to heal the young Gennins. It was fortunately the Godaime Hokage was the world's foremost expert on Medicine as under her guidance they would be able to save the strongest batch of Gennin in several decades.

The families of the Gennins silently thanked whomever it was that convince Tsunade to return to Konoha. It was a well-known fact that she left Konoha vowing never to return. The person, they assumed it was Jiraiya, that convinced her to return did a great service to the village, one that they may never be able to repay.

Currently the Godaime Hokage had just finished up treating Chouji and reversed the effects caused by his family's special soldier pills. As she came out she found the blonde kunoichi Yamanaka Ino and the head of the Akamichi Family sitting in the small waiting room outside the emergence room. When she saw the looks of concern on their faces she gave a reassuring smile, "Don't worry he's going to be just fine." The pair let out sigh of relief at the news. "It was thanks to the documentation and research of the ingredients from the Nara clan that I was able reverse the effects. I guess the long friendship of your families really paid off, Chomara." The large Jounin gave a smile and an enthusiastic nod; he was so happy that his only child was safe that he could not even hope to express his gratitude.

"Hokage-sama, can we see Chouji now?" Ino asked.

"Right now he needs his rest," Tsunade said with a shake of her head. "You'll have to visit him tomorrow." Both visitors nodded and went to leave the hospital.

As she left Ino could not help but frown. She had expected Shikamaru to stay with her and Chouji's father until they found out that Chouji was better. The only reasons she did not go ballistic when Shikamaru left the waiting room were that any loud noise would get her thrown out and that she figured the reason Shikamaru left was to check on Naruto. A messenger had arrived and informed the new Chunin of something and he left right after with an unusual look on his face. When she asked the messenger what happened he told her that Naruto had come in injured as well. Ino believed that Shikamaru was showing concern for the hyper active blonde as until then there was no word on him.

What Ino did not know was that Shikamaru was highly concerned with Naruto's condition. Not only because he come to think of him as a friend, albeit a troublesome one, he also wanted to get some answers about Naruto's unknown abilities. When he arrived at another room in the critical care section of the hospital he was met up by Team Seven's Jounin Sensei Kakashi. "Kakashi-sensei I'm not sure how to ask this but…" Shikamaru began unsure how to approach the subject. He was not even sure Kakashi knew about Naruto's abilities. It was clear Naruto only used the Mokudon (Wood Element) jutsus because the situation was life and death. "Naruto used some rather unique jutsus…"

Kakashi looked at his fellow lazy genius with an arched eyebrow for a moment, "All of Naruto's jutsus are unique," Kakashi thought. "Still Shikamaru is probably referring to Naruto's Mokudon jutsus." "You'll be informed when you're debriefed by Hokage-sama." Shikamaru reluctantly agreed but knew he would soon have some answers to this troublesome mystery.

It was fortunate for him that Tsunade arrived not long after Kakashi spoke. Even after working nonstop to heal all the Gennins she still carried her stride with the energy and confidence that bespoke of her rank as Hokage, "I'm glad you're here Shikamaru, I can get your report after I check on Naruto," Tsunade said.

She entered the room with Kakashi following close behind. As soon as the entered the room Kakashi spoke up, "Shikamaru said Naruto used some 'unique' jutsu during the mission. I believe he is referring to the Mokudon. I saw evidence that Naruto also used them during his fight with Sasuke."

Tsunade gave no indication she heard Kakashi, not that she needed to as the Copy Cat knew she did. She was too busy looking over Naruto's unconscious form to respond. "Looks like the field Medics were right," she thought. "All he appears to be suffering from is extreme exhaustion." As she scanned his body with a diagnosis jutsu she came to a spot on his chest about the size of a fist. "there is some scar tissue here. To leave any scar tissue on Naruto must have been caused by an extremely damaging jutsu." She knew from when she examined Naruto after the fight with Orochimaru that his injuries heal at an incredible rate and leave almost no trace of damage. "Considering the damage necessary to leave a scar I would have to say Chidori did this." She glanced at Kakashi for a moment, "Damn him for teaching that spoiled brat his jutsu."

"How is he?" Kakashi asked seeing Tsunade straighten after she finished checking Naruto out.

"He should be fine," Tsunade answered. "Though it appears he took a near fatal wound to the chest. Only the Kyuubi's regenerative abilities saved him."

"I see," Kakashi replied. He knew the kind of damage it would take to leave noticeable damage on Naruto, the kind of damage his personal jutsu did.

A few minutes later Tsunade was in her private office at the hospital with Shikamaru. She brought him here so they could speak openly without interruptions and eavesdroppers listening in. "Kakashi has informed me that you witnessed Naruto using unique jutsus."

"Yes Hokage-sama," Shikamaru responded. "When we were trapped by the first of the Oto shinobi that Naruto used a jutsu that previously thought only the Shodaime could use. After Naruto freed us he said he would tell us how he was able to do them when the mission was over."

"What I am about to tell you is highly sensitive material and is not to be told to any without my permission," Tsunade ordered. Shikamaru nodded and Tsunade continued, "Naruto's origins have been a closely guarded secret by the Sandaime Hokage and Naruto. In fact until I recently went through his old journals did I find out the truth. I am sure that you have heard of…situations that arise during missions that produce illegitimate children." Shikamaru nodded at that. It was one way some clans with power Bloodline Limits become so large in a relatively short amount of time. The Clan did not want to risk their secrets getting out do to a brief error in judgment, so it was not uncommon for Clans to take those children in. But sometimes some children were missed.

"So you are saying the Shodaime had an encounter with another woman besides his wife at some point and Naruto is decided from that encounter," Shikamaru concluded.

"Very astute conclusion Shikamaru," Tsunade said. She knew she was only telling Shikamaru half-truths about Naruto, but for now she decided that telling Shikamaru a little bit of truth and let the genius draw his own conclusions was the best course of action to protect Naruto. For now they still needed to keep Naruto's origins as secret as possible, he needed to grow in strength enough in order to protect himself from Konoha's enemies. Many rival Shinobi Villages would love to get the secrets of the Shodaime Hokage so the half-truths and out right lies were needed, for now. Tsunade knew that Shikamaru would need some information and would quickly draw a logical conclusion, all she had to do was present the information in the right way. He may be a genius but so was she, and add to decades more experience she had over him it was easy to pull off this minor manipulation. "I cannot tell you anymore for Naruto's safety."

"I understand Hokage-sama," Shikamaru said. He knew there was a lot more but he had to agree that kind of power needed to remain secret.

"Now tell me about the rest of the mission," Tsunade ordered. Shikamaru complied and relayed everything he knew.

Hours later Naruto woke up with Tsunade sitting next to his hospital bed. Tsunade was here to inform him of the story that was told to Shikamaru so that he does not tell any conflicting stories. After she was done Naruto's first question was, "What happened to Sasuke?"

"Kakashi found you at the Valley of the End unconscious and alone," Tsunade began. "When he arrived one of his dogs detected Kabuto's scent. We believe that Orochimaru sent him to retrieve him. We also think that Kabuto did not finish you off because Kakashi arrived. Kakashi said his dog informed him the scent was still relatively fresh."

Naruto became dejected that even though he beat Sasuke he still failed in his promise. "Why didn't Kakashi-sensei go after them?" Naruto asked quietly.

"You needed medical attention Naruto," Tsunade answered. "And the rain was washing away the trail. There was no way he could go after them."

"I see," Naruto whispered. "How is everyone else?"

"Everyone came back with injuries," Tsunade answered. "But everyone is stable now and will make a full recovery."

"That's good," Naruto said. "Have you told everyone else what you told Shikamaru?"

"Not yet," Tsunade answered. "When they're better I'll give them a debriefing and I will tell them what I told Shikamaru." She then leaned in and kissed him on the forehead, "Get some rest, you can tell me what happened after you left Rock Lee tomorrow."

A week later everyone was finally let out of the hospital. In that time the only visitors that came to Naruto were Jiraiya and Tsunade. This made Naruto rather sad because he had hoped Sakura and Kakashi would come visit him. Once he was informed that all the Jounin were on constant missions he felt better about Kakashi not visiting. He assumed Kakashi was out of the Village. Sakura on the other hand had no such excuse, so Naruto concluded that she did not want to see him because she blamed him for not bringing Sasuke back.

In truth Sakura had not visited because she was feeling guilty about making Naruto promise to bring Sasuke back. She could not face Naruto for forcing him into such a dangerous position as to her that was all she did. "Because of me Naruto's faced death so many times," Sakura thought. "There was the bridge when I wasn't strong enough to help against the Nuke-nin (Missing-nin) from Kiri, then there was fight against Gaara and now this. It's my fault, I wasn't strong enough to protect myself and not strong enough to stop Sasuke when I had the chance. And because of that Naruto almost died again. Maybe…maybe I shouldn't be a ninja anymore."

Naruto was wandering around the Village Market Place. When he talked with Jiraiya in his hospital room he vowed that no matter what he would bring Sasuke back no matter how long it took. He was tempted to go off on his own and get Sasuke back by himself, but he also realized that he was now a target and if he did go after Sasuke Orochimaru would capture him as well. "Damn Teme (Bastard), damn Hebi (Snake)," Naruto said cursing the pair. He hated to feel helpless and right now that was how he felt all because of Sasuke and Orochimaru. "I wonder I'm going to keep training with Ero-Sannin and Yamato-san?" Naruto wondered.

"Naruto," a voice said from the left. Naruto turned to see Kiba with Akamaru coming out of the veterinarian's office the Inuzuka Clan owned.

"Kiba, how's Akamaru doing?" Naruto asked.

"He's doing better," Kiba answered. "Isn't that right Akamaru?" the white puppy barked an affirmative answer. "So what's it like?"

"It just sucks that I can't tell anybody that's all," Naruto replied.

"Heh, always trying to show off," Kiba laughed. "Just because you can do those jutsu doesn't mean we'll loose to you Dobe!"

"You want to fight Inu-Ibuki (Dog Breath)!" Naruto yelled, "Because if you do I'll kick you ass just like in the Chunin Exam Prelims!"

"Like you could!" Kiba yelled back. "That was just a fluke!"

"Just like it was a fluke he defeated me in the Finals?" Neji asked coming up with his team.

"Or when he beat Gaara during the invasion?" Lee asked. "No Naruto is truly a worthy rival! And someday I will defeat him like my other Eternal Rival Neji!"

"So how are you two doing?" Tenten asked. She was obviously referring to their injuries from the recent retrieval mission.

"I'm fine and Akamaru will be ready to start training again in a couple of days," Kiba answered.

"I'm great!" Naruto answered. "In fact I've been fit for training since I left the hospital!"

Neji raised an eyebrow at that. Chakra exhaustion caused shinobi to be laid up for weeks usually and even then they don't return to one hundred percent right away. "Just one more mystery that surrounds him," Neji thought. "Just how many secrets does he have?" Neji had been able to detect that Tsunade was holding back a lot of information when she debriefed the team earlier that week. He asked Hiashi what he knew about Naruto after he defeated him during the Chunin Exam. All Hiashi would say was that Naruto had a hidden power that he was not able to talk about. Neji at first thought it was the Mokudon jutsus but now he felt Hiashi was referring to something else. "It probably has to do with that strange red chakra he was able to produce when he fought me."

"Well I've got to get going," Kiba said. "My team is scheduled to do a lame D-Class Mission. It's all we're allowed to take until the Docs say I'm back to full health."

"Don't forget to take Hinata-sama with you Kiba," Neji said. His statement earned an 'eep' from around the corner. The Hyuuga Progeny knew his cousin was once again following Naruto around.

Kiba nodded and walked in Hinata's direction, "Come on Hinata, Kurenai-sensei and Shino are probably already waiting for us."

Hinata cautiously stepped out from the corner pocking her fingers together, "G…good bye N…Naruto-k…kun." She quickly ran off after Kiba before Naruto could respond.

"She sure can be weird," Naruto mused silently.

In the Hokage's Office a discussion was taking place that would decide the next few years of Naruto's life. "According to my information network Akatsuki has gone into hiding," Jiraiya informed the other two. "They should not be active again for another three years."

"So that means Naruto is safe from them for the time being," Yamato replied.

"But that still leaves Orochimaru," Tsunade countered. "He wants the power and the easiest way for him to get it would be to kidnap Naruto."

"For now we don't have to worry about that either," Jiraiya said. "The information I discovered about the immortality jutsu he created needs at least three years to perform again but it also takes him months to adjust to the new body so that he is up to full strength."

"Coupled with the fact that five of his best shinobi are now dead," Yamato added. "For now Naruto is safe."

"I've spoke with Naruto," Jiraiya said, "He's adamant that he goes after Sasuke and I doubt there's anything we can do to stop him."

"I agree, the brat can be incredibly stubborn. So the question is what do we do now?" Tsunade asked. "The ideal solution is for you two to take Naruto away to train without telling anyone where you're going. But I can't afford to have one of my best Anbu Captains just take off while we're rebuilding. We need every active shinobi and kunoichi we have."

"For now we can train him here," Yamato suggested. "You said it yourself Jiraiya-sama, there will be no threats from Akatsuki and Orochimaru for at least a few months."

"Train him here for the next few months then we go off to train him away from the village," Jiraiya continued.

"The best estimates anyone can make is that Konoha will be under repairs and recovering from the attack in terms of mission loads for at least a year," Tsunade said. "Even after a few months you'll still be needed for the mission load."

"So we both train him here for the next six months," Jiraiya said. "Then I take him with Shodaime's scrolls and train him in private."

"Finish teaching him the basics of Shodaime's jutsus and let him learn the advance jutsus on his own," Yamato replied.

"It would help him in his development," Jiraiya added. "What usually stunts a shinobi's growth is a sensei holding their hand too much. A student should learn to develop and learn jutsus on their own. Naruto already has a talent for that anyway, he learn Kage Bushin (Shadow Clone) on his own and only needed to be shown the stages of Rasengan once and he worked it out on his own."

"Alright," Tsunade concluded, "Jiraiya you'll train Naruto and Yamato you'll give supplemental instruction him when in between missions for the next six months. Afterwards Jiraiya you'll take him away to train."


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and only use it for entertainment purposes.

In a darkened chamber deep in one of the underground bases that made up the Oto (Sound) Hidden Village, Kabuto came out of one of his many medical rooms. When he came out the Snake Sennin, whose one unbandaged eye looked highly annoyed, greeted him. "How is Sasuke-kun doing?" Orochimaru demanded. When Kabuto retuned with Sasuke a little over two weeks ago he was vary upset that his new body was in such a bad condition. Kabuto had reported that he found Sasuke unconscious with several injuries. Kabuto had also told him that the Kyuubi Vessel who was also unconscious at the time. Kabuto would have brought Naruto back as well but he detected some was coming and had to leave the area with Sasuke only.

"He is conscious Orochimaru-sama," Kabuto reported. "He has demanded that you start to train him. Apparently his loss to Naruto-kun has left him highly irritated."

"To see a person he thought was beneath him defeat him would make Sasuke-kun very angry" Orochimaru said. "This will only make Sasuke-kun easier to manipulate." Orochimaru started to laugh as a new plan formed in his mind to make Sasuke more subservient to him. He would bate Sasuke with tidbits of information about Naruto's powers, the Shodaime's Jutsus and the Kyuubi's chakra and both their potential. This would push Sasuke train harder and use the Curse Seal even more making him easier to control through the Curse Seal's mental suggestion component.

"Orochimaru-sama, what about your former associates?" Kabuto asked. "News Naruto's new abilities have surely reached them by now."

"You are mostly likely correct," Orochimaru replied. "The Shodaime's ability to influence a Biju's chakra will make Naruto a very tempting target yet at the same time will cause them to proceed with caution. Just using a Biju's charka with brute force would make him a formidable opponent. Using it with control will put him on even ground with some of them eventually."

"Won't that make him a threat to your goals as well?" Kabuto asked.

Orochimaru did not answer Kabuto but instead turned away and walked down the darkened corridor. "Bring Sasuke-kun to my chamber," he ordered. "He has to begin his training, after all it would not due for my new body to be lacking in strength."

"Yes Orochimaru-sama," Kabuto replied. Once Orochimaru was out of sight Kabuto smirked, "So he is worried about Naruto's development. This will prove most interesting."

Naruto stumbled into his apartment and collapsed even before he made it to his bed. He had just returned from another day of training with Yamato and Jiraiya. The training had been going on for the past two weeks and Naruto always came home utterly exhausted. Quite a feat when one considered Naruto's natural stamina. Today had been among the most brutal to Naruto's body. For today was the day he would work on his still sub-par Taijutsu.

Naruto's Taijutsu was unique in that he did not have any formal style, not even the standard style that was taught at the Academy. The reason for this was because of Naruto's inherent nature. The formal Taijutsu styles simply conflicted with Naruto's best attribute, unpredictability. To circumvent this obstacle Jiraiya and Yamato simply correcting the forms of his punches, kicks, other various strikes and throws. Then they would have a sparing secession and let Naruto work out what was best through experience, best way for Naruto to learn anything. And then there was what they did for today, body conditioning.

When Naruto arrived at the training area at the horrific hour of five o'clock in the morning he was greeted by Jiraiya alone, Yamato had been called away for a mission. Jiraiya had Naruto begin with basic warm up exercises; stretching, push ups, sit-ups, ect. Then Jiraiya went on to heavier exercises; punching a tree stump until his knuckles bled, kicking the same stump until his shins bled. After that Jiraiya went on to body hardening conditioning; summing several man sized toads and taking a log and slamming it into Naruto's front then his back, then have those same toads take metal poles and start whacking Naruto's upper legs again front and back. After that a brief rest period and Jiraiya focused on speed and dodging by throwing blunted kunai at Naruto, again with the aide of his toads. Next Jiraiya would stretch Naruto's body out using an apparatus that would pull his limbs as far as they would go and leave him there for hours. By the time Naruto was finished with the day he was ready to drop.

Lying on his floor Naruto could not help but think back to the first day he had experienced body conditioning. He had complained at the level of intensity Jiraiya simply told him to quite complaining and get back to work. Naruto so used to people ignoring him and started yelling at Jiraiya who started yelling back. After about fifteen minutes of this Yamato stepped in, mostly because he was getting a head ache from the noise level. He stopped the argument by asking Naruto a simple question…

"Naruto, you want to be Hokage one day, correct?" Yamato asked.

"You bet I do! It's my dream!" Naruto nodded enthusiastically.

"The Hokage means you are the best in the Konoha," Yamato continued. "And to be the best takes hard work. If you are not willing work hard at it then it will only be a dream…"

After that short conversation Naruto threw himself into the training. He still complained, but it was mostly about how Jiraiya would still pull out his spyglass and look at in the direction of the Konoha bathhouses.

The next day Naruto was practically starving from missing dinner because he was so tired and all the work from yesterday. So Naruto went to his favorite restaurant in order to gorge himself on ramen. Once he arrived at the Ichiruka Ramen Stand he immediately ordered ungodly amounts of food. After his tenth bowl Naruto finally ate his fill and paid the ever-thankful chef and his daughter, their business had been rather slow lately because of Naruto's training.

After Naruto ate his fill he went out to do some more training. Both Jiraiya and Yamato were out of the Village today. Yamato was still on his mission and Jiraiya was checking on some of his contacts. This meant that Naruto was forced to train on his own for at least the next few days. Fortunately Jiraiya and Yamato had already established a routine for Naruto to follow by now so the Kyuubi Vessel knew what to do today. Today was chakra control training. "Time to head for the waterfall," Naruto thought.

At her family flower shop Ino was contemplating what she should do for the rest of the day. Chouji was still recovering from the failed Retrieval mission and Shikamaru has been regulated to various Chunin duties do to the heavy work load everyone was know facing. This meant that Ino was temporarily teamed up with Lee and Tenten for missions because Neji was still recovering. Ino had mixed feelings about being teamed up with Gai's team. She was thankful that she had another girl to talk to but on the other hand she had to deal with Gai and Lee.

Now Ino actually did respect the odd pair. She saw Lee was willing to push himself beyond what most people would consider possible even when he was injured. But having to deal with Gai and Lee was a strain on one's sanity and frankly if Ino had to hear one more speech about the 'Flames of Youth' she was going to loose it.

For now Ino was getting a break from her temporary team. Gai had taken Lee on a training trip to the mountains outside of Konoha to teach him another Taijutsu technique. This meant that the two girls had the next few days off. Usually when this happened Ino was stuck with managing the family flower shop, but because her Mother was around Ino was free from that duty and now her time was free. In the past she would try and either hunt down Sasuke to ask for a date or go bother Sakura. Now that Sasuke was taken by Oto (Sound) and Sakura was doing some heavy training under Tsunade both those options were not available. The result of all this was Ino being bored out of her skull.

"Maybe I'll head out to the forest," Ino thought. "At least there I could see if the wildflowers were in bloom." One would think that because Ino was surrounded by flowers all her life she would rather to spend her time away from them. The truth is Ino truly loved flowers as they were a constant in the hectic lifestyle of a shinobi. What Ino hated was watching her parents' shop because of the boredom that came from it, not the flowers.

Later Ino was wandering along a small river in one of the denser parts of the forest inside Konoha's walls. She was following it because it lead to a pool at the base of a small waterfall where wild lilies grew and following the river was the best way to reach the pool. When she arrived at the waterfall she saw a rather unusual sight, a boy in nothing but boxers standing on the river just before the water fell over edge of the small cliff. "Hey what are you doing?" Ino called out.

Naruto was performing an exercise that Jiraiya showed him during the first week of training. Standing on water right before it goes over the edge of a waterfall. This was a harder charka control exercise then the standard water walking. Instead of just focusing on keeping afloat one also had to keep from moving and because water moved fastest near a waterfall Jiraiya made Naruto stand there. Naruto's chakra control has grown greatly over the last few weeks but he was still having trouble. The difficulty of this exercise required his entire concentration in order to keep from falling over the edge of the waterfall. This had already happened twice before which was why he stripped his all his clothes off except his boxers before his third attempt.

When Naruto heard Ino's question he immediately lost his concentration and fell over the edge of the waterfall into the pool below. Ino seeing the boy, she had yet to recognize, go over the edge she ran to edge of the cliff and looked down into the pool. To her relief she saw the boy surface and spit out some water. When she was finally able to get a good look at him she immediately recognized the telltale whisker like birthmarks on his cheeks, "Naruto?" she asked.

Naruto looked at the voice, "Ino?"

Both asked, "What are you doing here?"

A few minutes later Naruto was out of the water and dressed and Ino was at the base of the cliff. Ino had a slight blush on her face from when Naruto crawled out of the pool and she saw that Naruto actually had a better body then she thought. "So what are you doing out here?" Naruto repeated the earlier question.

"I was mostly taking a walk," Ino answered. "What about you? Why were you standing on the water so near the waterfall?" The fact that Naruto was standing on water was no surprise to Ino as Naruto told her about his training under Jiraiya before the Finals. But to stand near a waterfall was certainly very odd in her option.

"I was training," Naruto answered. "It's harder to stand on moving water then it is on standing. Water moves fastest near a waterfall so that increases the difficulty."

"Oh," Ino replied. For the next several minutes of silence permeated the pair. As the two had never really spoken except for a handful of times they did not have much of a foundation to start a conversation. Ino decided to end the silence with a question that had been bothering her ever since Naruto showed her his Rasengan. "Naruto, why do you train so much and so hard?"

"So I can be Hokage," Naruto answered immediately.

Ino looked at the other blonde Gennin for a moment then said, "There has to be more to it then that. It's like you're out to prove something." Ino had come to this conclusion after she remembered the fights she witnessed and the training she saw Naruto put himself through. Being on a team with Shikamaru and having Clan Jutsus that dealt directly with the mind made Ino rather proficient at observing a person's and guessing their motives, no where near some others like Neji but still pretty good.

After a few seconds of silence Naruto answered in an uncharacteristic soft voice. "All my life I've tried to prove everyone wrong."

"What do you mean?" Ino asked.

"For as long as I can remember there have been two constants in my life," Naruto began. "One was people mostly ignored me unless I forced them to look at me by shouting at the top of my lungs or other doing other things to get attention. And the other, was that when people talked to me it was always telling me what I could not do or would never be able to do. So I set out to prove everyone wrong." Naruto paused to clear some bad memories that came up as he was talking. "Everyone said I would never pass the Gennin Exam because I would never be able to do a Bushin (Clone). I passed the Exam and learned how to do Kage Bushin (Shadow Clone). No one thought I would ever be able to beat Neji or Sasuke or even Kiba and beat all three of them. Just about everyone thinks I'll be Hokage but just like everything else I'll prove them all that they were wrong!" Silently Naruto added, "And maybe then I'll be treated like a human being instead of some kind of monster."

Ino looked at the other blonde Gennin for a long while after hearing this. She tried to imagine what it was like to stand in the middle of crowd of people only to have people turn away and being forced to scream at the top of her lungs just to get some one to look at her. And when some did it was just to put her down and belittle her dreams. In truth she could picture the image easily enough because she actually saw it on those few occasions when she actually looked at Naruto, usually as a result of his yelling about something. But when she tried to call up the feelings about this she could draw no reference as she had always had someone to pay attention to her, whether it was a family member, a friend or teacher, some was there for her. "'The only thing worse then being alone is being alone in a crowd'" Ino muttered an old saying she once heard.

"You have no idea," Naruto replied having heard her.

"I'm sorry," Ino said. It was wholly inadequate in her opinion as she was often one of those people that told he would never succeed but it was all she could really say.

Naruto looked at her for several seconds. Very seldom did someone actually apologize to him and even less when they meant it, so it caught him off guard when Ino said it. After about thirty seconds of silence he gave her his signature Fox-like smile, "No problem!" He stood back up, "Well I need to get back to training. If Yamato-Sensei and Ero-Sennin learns I'm just sitting around they'll probably triple my training. So I'll see you later!" Naruto yelled as he ran up the cliff to reach the waterfall once more. Ino still sat on the bank of the pool for the next several minutes in silence; at least until she saw Naruto make a huge splash down in the pool once more. Ino could not help it and started laughing when Naruto surfaced and sputtered water out of his mouth. She laughed even harder when a small frog jumped on his head and gave a loud croak.


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and only use it for entertainment purposes.

Naruto sat on a tree branch of a tree he recently grew just a few days ago. Before he grew the tree to a full adult size it was just a seedling he found in the forest. The fact that he was able to grow made the seedling to a ten-meter high tree was a testament to his growth in the Mokuton (Wood Element) jutsus. At the rate he was going he would be able to grow a tree from just a seed in a matter of weeks. In the three months since his training started Naruto finally mastered the Mokusei Bushin (Wood Element Clone) and added another three Mokuton Jutsus; Mokusei Yoroi (Wooden Armor), Mokuton: Ne no Yari (Wood Element: Spear of Roots), and Tane O Maku no Ato O Ou (Seed of Tracking). In addition to his Mokuton Jutsus that Yamato taught him, Jiraiya also taught Naruto a couple of other jutsus for variety; Suiton: Mizu Bakuhatsu (Water Element: Water Blast) and Kaze Doriru (Wind Drill).

Currently Naruto was doing a bit of multi tasking for his training. He had about a dozen Kage Bushins (Shadow Clones) around the area. Some were training with the Tane O Maku no Ato O Ou so that he would have a greater ability to sense the seed he placed on whatever he wanted to keep track of, in this case a small squirrel running through the trees. Another four Kage Bushins were running some team tactics that Yamato showed him some times and the last few were practicing Taijutsu with Naruto himself looking over a scroll on the human body; or to be more specific pressure points of the human body.

Two weeks ago Jiraiya had felt that Naruto's body conditioning exercises and refinement of his own unorthodox style had progressed enough for Naruto to learn some advanced Taijutsu training principles. All Shinobi Taijutsu styles, even basic Academy styles, are geared to strike the vital areas of the human body to cause maximum damage with minimal effort so to conserve energy. The only real difference between Taijutsu styles was the methods taught on how to strike these areas. Rock Lee and Maito Gai's Gouken (Iron Fist) used high speed and flexibility of the body, the Hyuuga Clan's Jyuuken (Gentle Fist) and the Byakugan (White Eye) was geared around the use of quick precise strikes with chakra to hit the vital organs directly, even the Uchiha Clan's Kosasuruken (Intersecting Fist) did the same by using the Sharingan (Copying Wheel Eye) to see where the person was going and the strike at the best possible place. Jiraiya decided to take the base principle of striking the vital areas a step farther and teach Naruto to strike pressure points and nerve clusters that could anything from causing a mess up in coordination to loss of control to bodily functions to out right death with just a couple of strikes.

Currently Naruto was going over a diagram of a series of pressure points around the kidneys that would cause a person to loose control of the bladder every thirty minutes until the counter points were hit. In battle these points did not have much use, but in terms of dealing out payback in an embarrassing and relatively harmless way it was rather useful. In other words it was a good way prank technique for Naruto to use when some of the Villagers worked up enough guts, or got drunk enough, openly hassle him. Naruto was planning on testing out the technique the next time Jiraiya became distracted and tried to sneak off to peep into the woman's bath. Naruto could see the irony in causing problems for Jiraiya in the very area of his body the old pervert that ran his life.

Yamato who was in charge of supervising Naruto's training for the day watched passively as yet another Kage Bushin disappeared from a combination of punches and kicks to middle abdomen area where some nerve clusters would cause a person's left side to go completely numb. To a Kage Bushin this was counted as a critical blow and thus why it disappeared. Yamato glanced up at Naruto and noticed he paused in his study of the scroll to make another Kage Bushin and then return to his study. "Naruto's progress has been exceptional over the last three months," Yamato thought. "With his use of Kage Bushin to supplement some of his jutsu and practical training he has cut his training time down significantly. At the rate he's going he'll be ready to leave the Village by the end of the month, two months a head of schedule."

"Gang Way I've got to use the bathroom!" one of the Kage Bushins yelled running off into the forest.

"Yes I did it!" Naruto cheered from the branch.

Yamato sighed at that. "Naruto must have commanded the newest Kage Bushin to test out the pressure points," Yamato muttered. "I guess Jiraiya-sama is going to have some problems for the next couple of days." Louder he called out to Naruto, "Naruto we're done for the day, you can head home if you want."

Naruto jumped down from his tree and dismissed his Kage Bushins. He paused for a moment as the knowledge of the Kage Bushins that were practicing tactical and tracking exercises were sent to his brain. "Looks like I can now sense my seeds up to a hundred meters now," Naruto said.

"That's progress but for the Tane O Maku no Ato O Ou to be effective you need to increase the range to at least half a kilometer" Yamato stated.

"Any idea how to make the training go faster?" Naruto asked.

"Only way to increase the range you can sense it is to keep practicing," Yamato answered. "And speaking of training I'm going to be heading out on another mission tomorrow so when Jiraiya-sama is not training you, you will be on your own again. Sorry but the mission logs are backed up and well you know."

"Yeah," Naruto agreed. "I just wish that I could go on Missions. The training is good and all but it can get a bit…oh what's the word…"

"Monotonous, repetitive, unending," Yamato suggested.

"Yeah all those," Naruto agreed. "It can get a bit monotonous."

"Well with your teammate Sakura training under Hokage-sama, Kakashi-sempai taking A-Rank Missions on his own, and the other Gennin in you're age group back on their Teams now that everyone is healed and back up to full strength the only missions you can take are D-Rank Missions," Yamato said.

"I'd rather do nothing then do a stupid D-Rank Mission," Naruto grumbled. "I don't care what anyone says D-Rank Missions should not be Missions at all. They're just chores nothing more."

Yamato chuckled at Naruto's complaints as they walked back into the Village. "Well I'll see you when I get back Naruto."

"Yeah see you later Yamato-sensei," Naruto said as he waved.

The next day Naruto was walking towards the Bath Houses in order to find Jiraiya. The Super Pervert was late for their training session and Naruto knew that Jiraiya lost track of time peeping on the women again. Unlike the all the times this happened previously where Naruto had an irritated frown, he had a smile of anticipation, "I tested out the combination yesterday on a Kage Bushin so I know it works, now I can put it to used."

When he arrived he saw Jiraiya right where he expected him to be, by the women's side of the bathhouse looking through the wall via a newly drilled hole. Moving as quietly as he could Naruto snuck up on the Ero-Sannin. When he was close enough Naruto made three quick jabs and it the proper pressure points that would cause the loss of bladder control. Jiraiya immediately stood up feeling that there was something wrong and spun around, "What did you do Brat!?" Jiraiya demanded.

"I think you'll find out in few moments, Ero-Sannin," Naruto said with a huge smile. Just after Naruto finished his sentence Jiraiya's widened before he made a frantic dash to find the nearest restroom. Seeing his Sensei run off like that caused Naruto to start laughing his head off.

Five minutes later Naruto was still laughing when Jiraiya got back looking very pissed off. "That was a cheap trick Brat!"

"That's what you get for being late!" Naruto yelled back. "And don't think I'll reverse it either! This is to teach you a lesson for being such a pervert!"

"Ha I already reversed it," Jiraiya said. "You get to my level of strength without knowing about pressure points. And don't think that will ever work on me again because now I'll be on guard for it." Jiraiya's face went from angry to sadistic, "Now for your punishment for that trick you pulled." Naruto took a step back at the aura of menace that Jiraiya was putting off wondering if his prank on Jiraiya had been a good idea after all.

Three hours later at the break for lunch Naruto knew the prank was a bad idea. Jiraiya put an entire day's worth of body conditioning exercises into a three hour block leaving Naruto lying in a pull of his own sweat and blood, "Who knew Ero-Sannin could be so sadistic," Naruto thought. "And the day is only half over with and he said the hard part was yet to come."

A noise at the edge of the clearing drew Naruto's attention and earned him a wince in pain as even the slightest movement caused his body to ache. When Naruto could see the source of the noise he was somewhat surprised to see Team Gai entering the area. Team Gai seeing Naruto all four went on alert thinking that he had been attacked just recently. Neji activated his Byakugan, Tenten pulled out ten kunai, Lee went into his Gouken stance and Gai did the same.

"I see no one around," Neji said. The rest of Team Gai nodded and made their way over to Naruto's prone form.

"Naruto," Gai said in an unusually serious voice, "What happened? Who did this too you?"

Naruto struggled to speak, "Da…Danm Er…Ero-Sannin." Naruto then lost the last of his strength and fell into unconsciousness.

Some time later Naruto started to wake up and heard two voices yelling near by, "GO LEE, IF JIRAIYA-SAMA IS TRAINING NARUTO TO SUCH AN EXTENT THEN SO MUST I SO THAT YOU CAN PROVE STRONGER THEN ONE OF YOU'RE RIVALS!"

"YES GAI-SENSEI!" Lee shouted in response. "IF I CANNOT COMPLETE THESE 2000 SQUATS THEN I SHALL JUMP ROPE 300 TIMES!"

"What are Fuzzy Brows and Super Fuzzy Brows doing?" Naruto muttered.

"After you passed and we determined that you're injuries were not serious to warrant medical attention, Gai-Sensei concluded that you're exhaustion and injuries were a result of Jiraiya-sama's training," Neji spoke up. "Ever since then they have been doing on exercise after another."

"How long have I been out?" Naruto said after sitting up with only a minor ache thanks to his high regeneration rate.

"About two hours or so," Tenten answered joining in on the conversation.

"Eh?" Naruto looked confused, "Has Ero-Sannin come by since then."

"Yes," Neji said. "He saw us and then saw you passed out. He said to tell you that you would continue where you left off tomorrow and then left saying something about research. I think he just wanted to get away from Gai-Sensei and Lee."

"Yeah I see," Naruto said as Lee and Gai went into the sunset and hugging part of their training routine. Turning away from the disturbing bonding ritual between the two Naruto asked, "So what are you guys doing out here?"

"We were training," Tenten said. "Gai-sensei was taking us out here for more forest combat practice when we ran into you. Things kind of got side tracked from there."

"Sorry I interrupted, I guess," Naruto apologized scratching the back of his head.

"Don't worry about it," Tenten said waving him off.

"What have you guys been up to lately?" Naruto asked because he had not seen much of his friends lately and this was a chance for him to catch up.

"Most training and Missions," Neji answered. "I have been receiving training from Hiashi-sama, Tenten has perfected some new weapons katas and Lee has been training in a new Taijutsu style."

"That's good. What kind of Missions?" Naruto asked.

"C-Rank mostly," Tenten answered. "Though we have been forced to take on a couple of B-Rank due to the work overload."

"B-Rank!?" Naruto asked. "Wish I could go on a couple of those. All I can go on is D-Rank Missions and train because all the teams are full now."

"Sorry to hear you can only take D-Rank Missions," Tenten said. "But at least with all that training you're doing you have probably become a lot stronger."

"Yeah I've gotten a really strong sense the last time we saw each other," Naruto said with a great amount of pride in his voice. "What about the others what's been happening with them?"

"Last I heard Team 10 was in Ocean Country helping Mitarashi Anko investigate some problems with the shipping in that area," Tenten answered. "They've each learned a new family jutsu and put together a few new team maneuvers. Not too sure about Team 8 though."

"Hinata-sama and her team are also out of the Village," Neji said. "They are escorting a caravan to the Capital of Fire Country. Hinata-sama has invented her own absolute defense that slices anything with in range instead of throwing an attack to the side like the Kaiten (Heavenly Spin). Also according to her Kiba has become faster and Shino has a new colony of his Kikai (Destruction Insects)."

"Sounds like everyone's getting stronger," Naruto concluded. "I wonder how Sakura-chan is doing?"

"I've seen her a couple of times at the Hospital helping the staff out," Tenten spoke up. "But other than that I don't know, you would have to ask her yourself."

"I might do that," Naruto said.

Nearly a dozen kilometers east of Konoha a non-descript man was kneeling in front of Kabuto. This was one of the Oto (Sound) spies that Orochimaru has around the Continent that reported to him. This particular one was assigned to Konoha to keep tabs on the Snake Sannin's former Village. Recently he had been assigned the task of watching Naruto. "The target has been training with Jiraiya of the Sannin and a Jounin named Yamato for the past three months. The two train him in private and the target is rarely left alone when he is not training with them. At least two Anbu shadow him before and after the training sessions."

"And how has those training sessions been progressing?" Kabuto asked. "Orochimaru has become interested in what kind of training the target was been receiving."

The spy hesitated for a moment before answering, "I was not able to view the target's training. I tried to follow but the Sannin detected me and I had to flee."

"Did he spot you?" Kabuto asked.

"No," the spy said. "But he has been on alert ever since that day. I have had to lay low."

Kabuto without another word pulled out a kunai and stabbed the spy in the throat killing him instantly. "Fool," Kabuto said to the corpse. "If Jiraiya detected you then the Konoha Anbu are searching for you and eventually they would have discovered you." Kabuto then pulled out a scroll and performed a series of hand seals and summoned a large snake. The snake proceeded to eat the corpse and then disappeared in a burst of smoke. The scroll burnt after that, as a fire jutsu activated once the one time use Kyuichose (Summon) jutsu was finished. "Better get out of here before any Anbu come."

Late that night Kabuto reached one of the many hidden bases that made up the Village of Oto. Once there he went straight to a room furthest in and met Orochimaru. After a brief report on what the spy told him and his explanation of the execution of the spy Kabuto waited for Orochimaru to respond. "It is safe to assume that Naruto's other Sensei is the other survivor of my experiment as he is the only one that can teach him to use the Mokuton jutsus," Orochimaru mused. "The lack of information on his progress is unfortunate but for the immediate time it is not of much concern. I can simply tell Sasuke-kun that Naruto has been progressing at an increasing rate to motivate him further. Still I should make future preparations for if he becomes a nuisance and tries to disrupt my plans." Orochimaru then lapsed into silence for a moment before looking at Kabuto again, "Prepare your equipment for Sasuke to start the second half of his training. I will need my new body as strong as possible when the time comes."

"Yes Orochimaru-sama," Kabuto bowed. "It will take time to prepare for everything. The process of enhancement was originally designed for an individual who has fully matured and regardless of Sasuke-kun's abilities he is still physically a just barely a teenager. I will have to modify the process a bit before we get started."

"Yes I don't want any detrimental effects on my future body because of poor planning," Orochimaru agreed. "Do what you need to but be quick about it. The sooner we start the more we can accomplish."


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and only use it for entertainment purposes.

It was the end of another grueling day of training for Naruto under Jiraiya. In just under a week the two would be leaving Konoha for the next two years. Jiraiya had a thoughtful look on his face whenever he would watch Naruto train. It started when Yamato and he got into a discussion about chakra elemental affinity that Naruto overheard. He had asked what it was and they explained easily enough, each person's chakra has an affinity towards the five elements that allows them to use and invent jutsus. The next question after that was predicable, how does one know their chakra elemental affinity…?

"Different villages have different methods of finding out," Yamato began. "Here in Konoha we use special paper made from a rare type of tree. You channel your chakra into the paper; if the paper burns your affinity is fire; it gets wet, water; splits in half, wind; crumples, lighting; and if it turns to dust, earth."

"So what are you guys' charka affinity and for that matter what are mine?" Naruto asked.

"Both of ours are earth and water," Jiraiya answered. "Mine has a slightly greater affinity towards water thus my ability to work so well with toads and make swamps. Toads like water and swamps are basically wet earth."

"Mine is an almost equal affinity to both earth and water," Yamato added. "And so should your's as well. It allows us to use the Mokudon (Wood Element), forests require water and the earth to thrive."

"You know we should probably check just to make sure," Jiraiya said while his face should deep thought. "The Kyuubi's chakra could have some unknown effect on Naruto's affinity."

"I'll pick some sheets of the paper and we can test him tomorrow," Yamato said.

The next day Yamato showed up and produced a simple white square of paper and handed it to Naruto. "Now Naruto channel you're chakra into paper and we'll see how it reacts."

Naruto did so and the paper reacted. What surprised the Sannin and Anbu Captain was that the paper was split in half just before getting wet and turning to dust at the same time. This meant that Naruto's greatest affinity was to wind over water and earth. This opened up a hole new possibilities for Naruto, as wind was the strongest offensive chakra type.

After the two adults recovered from the slight shock Yamato gave Naruto another piece of paper. "Alright now channel Kyuubi's chakra and we'll see what affinity it has," Jiraiya instructed.

Naruto closed his eyes in concentration and sent a thought to the back of his mind, "Hey Fur-ball give me a little of your chakra." Naruto felt the chakra flow through him and he then directed into his right hand, that was holding the paper. When he did not feel the paper react he opened his eyes to see the paper still just as pristine as before. "Hey what happened? Did you give me the wrong piece of paper, Yamato-sensei?"

"No I made sure it was the right paper," Yamato answered. His face was just as confused as Naruto's.

Jiraiya on the other had looked thoughtful and was already thinking of a possibility. "The only way for the paper not to react to the charka is if the chakra is elementally neutral."

"How is that possible?" Yamato asked not hiding his surprise. "I thought that was impossible."

"It's extremely rare but not unheard of," Jiraiya answered. "But how is it possible for a Bijuu, the very definition on an elemental being, I have no idea. I'll have to think about this." He turned Naruto, "Well enough of this get back to training. Today is more body hardening!" Naruto groaned knowing he was going to be sore all day…

Jiraiya had deduced a possible explanation for the neutrality of the Kyuubi's chakra, a combination of the Seal, the Shodaime's power and Tsunade's necklace, but he would have to experiment on that later. Right now he had more important things to think about. Like how to plan out Naruto's training.

Originally Jiraiya planned on continuing Naruto's training he was doing here in the village and maybe teach him some of his own Numa (Bog/Swamp) Jutsus and a few more Doton (Earth Element) and Suiton (Water Element) jutsus. A third elemental affinity opened up another path for Naruto that could be extremely useful and powerful. The more Jiraiya thought about it the more he liked it. It would require a change in plan but nothing Jiraiya could not handle.

"Naruto before you leave I want to talk to you about what we're going to be doing on the training trip," Jiraiya said to his apprentice.

"Ok Ero-Sannin," Naruto replied.

"STOP CALLING ME THAT!" Jiraiya bellowed. "Anyway before we get into that let me ask you something." Jiraiya paused knowing that it would make Naruto more curious and thus make it easier to talk to him. "Do know how a person in Konoha gets the title of Sennin or Hokage?"

"It's because the shinobi is super strong," Naruto answered confidently.

"Not exactly," Jiraiya answered. "Becoming as strong as we are is only a part of being a Sennin or the Hokage. Konoha has always had a knack of producing strong shinobi, Class A and even Class S pretty consistently. What separates a strong shinobi from the Hokage or Sennin is that the Hokage and Sennin are absolute Masters at part of shinobi life."

"That's cool and all but what does that have to do with my training?" Naruto asked. All this talk about Hokage and Sennin got him very interested but he wanted to know about the next stage of his training.

"I'm getting to that," Jiraiya answered. "But to continue, I am Master at espionage. When I don't want to be found nothing short of the Byakugan can find me."

"Then why are you always getting caught girls you peep on?" Naruto asked with a smirk.

"I occasionally indulge in S&M," Jiraiya answered with a strait face, causing Naruto to shiver. "Back to the subject at hand, and this time don't interrupt!" Naruto nodded and Jiraiya continued, "Tsunade is a Master of medicine. She knows the ins and outs of everything that goes into the profession from jutsus to research to surgery to invention. She even holds several patent rights on medical equipment she invented, that's also why she is never truly broke from her gambling the royalties from their manufacture and use bring in a huge bundle for her." Naruto could not help but smile at the news. "Orochimaru is a Jutsu Master. He can analyze, dissect and replicate just about any jutsu he sees, through research of course. At least unless he gets the Sharingan that is." Naruto frowned at that. "The Nidaime Hokage was a Kenjutsu and a Suiton Master. His skill with the sword and ability to manipulate water were greater than anyone in Kiri (Mist) has ever produced. The Yondaime was a Seal Master. He was the youngest Konoha ever had. He used his expertise to create dozens of Seals including the one that trapped Kyuubi and the one that he put on some special kunai gave him his infamous Shunshin no jutsu (Body Flicker) and his nickname, the Yellow Flash of Konoha. The Shodaime was a War Master. He knew every aspect of battle and warfare and used that knowledge to unite the shinobi clans in Fire Country during the First Great Shinobi War and found Konoha. And finally there was the Sandaime. He was an Elemental Master. He had mastery of all five chakra Elemental Affinities and that allowed him to learn over a thousand elemental jutsus and invent several hundred others that Konoha now uses." Jiraiya paused again taking the most serious look Naruto had ever seen on the Sennin outside of battle. "Naruto what I am going to be training you to become is Konoha's next Elemental Master."

Naruto stared wide-eyed at Jiraiya for a few seconds before he yelled, "ALRIGHT! I'm going to kick so much ass!" Jiraiya chuckled at Naruto's shout and the subsequent improvised dance that followed. Suddenly Naruto stopped his little celebration and asked, "But why me? Why hasn't someone else become an Elemental Master?"

"Others have tried but ultimately failed," Jiraiya said. "They did not have the training or the affinity to become an Elemental Master. Most Jounin can develop an affinity for two or three elements in their carrier; Kakashi is one such person. A rare few can develop four; Orochimaru and Uchiha Itachi are examples of them. But to develop an affinity for all five one must develop affinities multiple elements at a young age, such as the Sandaime did and you do."

"OH YES I'M GOING KICK SO MUCH ASS!" Naruto yelled as he once again started his celebratory dance. "JUST YOU WAIT SASUKE-TEME (bastard), I'LL BE STRONG ENOUGH TO KICK OROCHIMARU'S ASS AND DRAG YOU BACK!"

"You have a long way to go before you can accomplish that Naruto," Jiraiya thought. Out loud Jiraiya yelled, "Well we're done for the day. Get out of here so I can do some research. I feel like I might get 'caught.'" No sooner did Jiraiya finish did he see an orange blur dashing out of the clearing. Naruto did not want to think about the S&M comment Jiraiya made earlier.

Later that night Jiraiya was having a drink with Tsunade and told her about what he planned to do with Naruto's training. "Do you really think Naruto can become an Elemental Master like Sensei was?" Tsunade asked after taking a drink of sake.

"I wouldn't have said anything to him if I didn't think he could do it," Jiraiya answered taking a drink of his own sake. "In fact we may see a few Masters coming out the current generation. Hyuuga Neji may be the next Jyuuken (Gentle Fist) Master, Rock Lee is already well on his way to becoming Gai's successor as the Gouken (Iron Fist) Master. With you training that Sakura girl she'll likely be the next Medic Sennins. If that Nara kid got off his lazy ass he would be the next Strategy Master. Hell I think with the right training that Hyuuga Heiress could be a good Seal Master. Maybe not one for combat like the Yondaime but with her Byakugan and the control she has she could do well. All she really needs is the proper motivation."

"That would be a sight to see," Tsunade admitted. "A member of the Hyuuga Branch House being the next Master of Jyuuken and the Heiress of the Main House learning how to make and break seals. And considering Hinata hates the Branch House Seal the two would probably end that division of the Hyuuga real quick."

"I can just imagine the look on those old fools faces if it happens," Jiraiya said with a loud laugh. "They'd probably die of a heart attack seeing their precious Seal become useless."

Tsunade shared Jiraiya's laugh taking a swig of Sake. "Still you're probably right. A lot of the Gennin have quite a bit of talent some of it still untapped. I think I'll look more into their profiles and comments from their Jounin-senseis and see about advanced training for them." Jiraiya gave a salute with his sake cup at the idea and the two proceeded to get extremely drunk for the rest of the night. One had to feel bad for Shizune however as she had the unfortunate task of taking them to their beds and cleaning up their mess.

The week passed quickly and Naruto and Jiraiya were standing before Konoha's Main Gates preparing to leave. There were only two people Tsunade and Shizune, three if you count Tonton, to see them off due to missions and previous engagements. "We'll see you in two years," Jiraiya said to his teammate.

"Two years," Tsunade nodded. She turned to Naruto and gave him a soft but affectionate hug, "Take care of yourself Naruto-kun and don't let him turn you into a pervert."

"Don't worry Oba-chan," Naruto said. "I won't turn like Ero-Sennin. And you had better take care of the village because I don't want any mess to fix when I get back and become the Rokudaime."

"Good-bye Naruto-kun, I'll miss you." Shizune joined in with Tonton oinking his agreement.

"I'll miss you too Shizune-nechan," Naruto replied. He then leaned in to whisper, "Don't let Oba-chan gamble away all of Konoha's money."

This earned him a bop on the heard as he was not as quiet as he thought. "Get going Gaki (Brat) before I put you in the hospital for that," Tsunade said.

"Come on Naruto we've got a lot of ground to cover," Jiraiya said walking away. Naruto trotted after him rubbing his head and waving back to Tsunade and Shizune.

Author's Note: I know this chapter is small but I think it was needed. It took me a while to get out because several questions were going through my head on where to go with this story. But now I have a path I'm going to follow and I hope you all enjoy it.


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and only use it for entertainment purposes.

The two years since Naruto and Jiraiya left Konoha passed. For some it was faster than others. For people like the Gennin that took the Chunin Exam during the Oto (Sound) and Suna (Sand) invasion the time passed quickly; what with training and missions to take. For people like the Godaime Hokage and her assistant Shizune the time passed sometimes at a fast pace, both training Sakura or working at the Hospital, and sometimes at a slow pace, Tsunade being forced to due paper work and Shizune having to hunt her down when she got tired of it. For others like the people in charge of Gate duty the time passed agonizingly slow, the tediousness of having to ask every person the same questions overrode the seldom occurrence of meeting new and interesting people. It had turned out that having Naruto in the village made Gate duty actually bearable; the long hours were filled with discussions of the blonde bundle of energy. Whether a person liked him or hated him Naruto would always come up in conversation.

"How long until we get off?" a Chunin guard asked.

"Four hours, fifty seven minutes and fifteen seconds," his friend and partner answered.

"Damn only two minutes and twenty seconds past since the last time I checked," The first Chunin complained. "I wish some thing would happen! A new person coming by! A Shinobi or Kunoichi coming back from a mission with an interesting story! An Inuzuka dog chasing the Fire Daimyo's Wife's cat! Anything!"

As if to answer the plea a shout from the Jounin in charge of the Gate detail came up to them. "A pair of guys are approaching," she said. The Chunins looked at each other then out to the road. Sure enough two individuals were walking at a leisurely pace towards them. "It looks like a tall long white haired man with a shorter man, no wait a teenager with blonde hair," The Jounin paused as the two got closer she was able to make out their faces, "It's Jiraiya-sama and Naruto-san!"

"Looks like things are going to get more lively soon," one of the Chunins said with the other nodding happily. The end to their perpetual boredom was at hand.

The Master and Apprentice moved closer the differences that occurred became noticeable to the Chunin. Jiraiya had not changed too much; he still wore the same outfit he did two years previously. The only real difference was he had a couple more age lines and his hair was little longer. Naruto on the other hand changed a great deal. He was dressed in a similar style of clothing he had two years ago only this time the color pattern was reversed, blue with orange trim. On anyone else it would have looked funny at best, stupid at worse but for Naruto it seemed to work. He also carried a large scroll, almost as big as the one Jiraiya always carried, on his back. His physical appearance had also changed he was taller now by at least fifteen centimeters making him about a head shorter than Iruka. His blonde hair was even spikier than before and his eyes seemed to be an even deeper shade of blue. One thing that did not seem to change was his fox-like grin he had plastered on his face.

When they finally got the gate the Jounin greeted the pair with a smile, "Welcome back Jiraiya-sama, Naruto-san."

Jiraiya looked at the Kunoichi Jounin and a smile spread on his face. It was not a friendly, sorrowful, or even a malevolent smile. No it was the one Jiraiya always got when he met an attractive female, a perverted smile. Jiraiya attempted to move closer so he could try and get a date but Naruto distracted him by kicking him in the shin, "Hey Ero-Sennin! Don't waste my time! I saw enough of you getting rejected on the trip, I don't need to see it now that I'm home!"

"Own!" Jiraiya yelled rubbing his sore shin. "Gaki (Brat) you know I never get rejected! Why women all over the world dream about me every night!"

"Only in their nightmares Ero-Sennin," Naruto said flatly.

"HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU NOT TO CALL ME THAT!" Jiraiya yelled as he chased the laughing Naruto into the village.

After the pair left the first Chunin from before said, "Yep things are already looking up!"

In the Hokage's office Tsunade was in the middle of a meeting about the upcoming Chunin Exam with the Suna representative, the Jounin Temari. "How will lodgings be handled this year? Early reports say that this Exam is going to be big."

"Kazekage-sama has set aside the necessary room for the participants and the guests," Temari answered. "He has even arranged for extra room in the stables for…"

Temari was cut off by an Administrator Chunin busting through the door, "Hokage-sama! there is a disturbance in the Market."

"You busted into my office when is was holding an important meeting just to tell be about some pick pocket!" Tsunade said sternly.

"O…Of course not Tsunade-sama," the now frightened Chunin replied. "The disturbance was caused by Jiraiya-sama and Uzumaki-san."

Tsunade's frown, that appeared at the interruption, faded into a small smile at the news, "Very well, thank you for the news. You are dismissed." The Chunin bowed and exited the office as quickly as he could.

While the Chunin left Temari smiled herself a little, 'So that kid is back. I wonder how he's changed?'

"Let's continue," Tsunade said returning to the meeting. "I want to finish this as soon as I can." Temari nodded knowing exactly why Tsunade wanted to finish.

In the Market Jiraiya and Naruto had finally stopped causing problems with the appearance of two Jounins. One was silver haired wearing a mask with his nose buried in small orange book and the other was a dark haired man wearing some kind of headgear and had a small smile on his face. "Don't you think the two of you are causing too much noise?" the dark haired Jounin asked.

"Yamato-sensei, Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto called out running up to the pair. "It's good to see you both."

Kakashi, closing his book, greeted Naruto with friendly wave, "Hey Naruto, you've certainly grown. I'd say you're finally taller than Sakura."

"Hey it's not right to make fun of a person's height like that," Naruto complained, even though he was at a respectable height for a person his age Naruto had some left over sensitivity about his short stature when he was a kid. "Just for that you don't get the gift I got for you."

"Gift?" Yamato and Kakashi asked with a slight surprise.

"Yeah I got one for everyone," Naruto said setting down his traveling pack. He reached inside and pulled out a small bonsai tree and handed it to Yamato.

"A Waterfall Country Bosai tree?" Yamato asked as he took the tree. "These are hard to get in Fire Country. Did that mean you went all the way to Waterfall Country to train?"

"No," Naruto said. "I actually only got the seed from a merchant. Grew the tree myself with my Mokuton (Wood Element) abilities."

"I guess your mastery of the Mokuton has increased," Yamato commented. "These are hard to grow from a seed, even the Shodaime was said to have some problems with them. Thank you for the gift."

"Oh speaking of the Mokuton, here's the Scroll back," Naruto said taking the scroll that was attached to his backpack and handing it to Yamato.

Yamato gently pushed the scroll back to Naruto, "No Naruto, you keep. I've learned all I can from it so you should have it."

"Thanks Yamato-sensei," Naruto said reattaching the scroll to his backpack.

Kakashi decided this was the time he wanted to inquire about his gift. He knew that a rare Bonsai Tree was a thoughtful gift for Yamato and wondered what Naruto got him, "So Naruto what did you get me?"

Naruto eyed for a moment still a little upset about the crack at his former height. With a mischievous smile Naruto reached into his bag once more and pulled out a book about the same size as the one Kakashi had in his hand. "Well I got you this, but I don't think I'm going to give it to you." In Naruto's hand was a book with the title Icha Icha (Come Come) Tactics. "It's the latest addition, not even in the stores yet."

Kakashi went from curious, to surprised, practically begging in the blink on an eye once he saw what Naruto got for him, "Please Naruto! I'm sorry I joked about your height! I promise I'll never do it again."

Naruto looked at Kakashi with a look that was akin to disgust mixed with pity. Here was a grown man and Shinobi, a Jounin no less, and begging for a something as simple as a book. "Fine here," Naruto said handing the book over. Kakashi snatched it from Naruto's hand and began to rub it against his cheek like it was the most precious thing in the world to him.

It was at this point that a few other people, Tsunade, Shizune and Sakura, showed up. "Hey Tsuande-Obassan, Shizune-Neechan, Sakura-chan," Naruto waved then cringed slightly when Tsunade frowned at him and her eyebrow started to twitch. Not wanting to get his Naruto quickly ducked back down to his pack and pulled out another gift. This time a beautifully crafted sake set with the kanji for Gambling Queen stenciled on to the bottle and cups. "This is for you."

Tsunade lost her anger and inspected the sake set, "Hmm very nice Naruto. I'll let you off the hook this time." Naruto breathed a sigh of relief, "But only this time!"

Naruto gulped a bit then went back to his pack and pulled out a small jewelry box and opened it revealing a simple but good quality necklace. "I didn't know what to get you so I just got you this," Naruto felt a little guilty about not getting Shizune something more personal.

Shizune just smiled like a sister and took the jewelry box, "Its beautiful Naruto-kun. Thank you."

"So what'd you get me Naruto?" Sakura asked.

Naruto had already dropped back down to his pack for the fifth time by the time Sakura asked her question. Still rifling through his pack Naruto answered, "Well I knew you were training under Tsunade-oba…um I mean Tsunade," Naruto was just able to catch himself before Tsunade's temper got to her, "and so I got you this." Naruto said as he stood up and handed Sakura a medium sized box.

Sakura opened the box and inside was a top quality surgeon's set, "Theses are excellent quality," Sakura said inspecting a particularly sharp scalpel.

"Well I figured you could use them since you're a Medic-nin and all," Naruto said rubbing the back of his head.

Tsunade had come over to inspect the set herself and was impressed with the quality. "Usually a Medic-nin uses their chakra for surgery but we always have a back up set incase we need to conserve our chakra."

Sakura nodded in agreement and pulled Naruto, who had picked up his backpack, away from the adults, "Come on lets go find the others. I'm sure they'll like what gifts you got them." She stopped for a moment then asked, "You did get them gifts too, right."

"Of course I did," Naruto said in an indignant voice, like it was an insult that he would be so thoughtless.

Sakura gave no response except to drag Naruto off down the road. Once they left Tsunade had to ask, "How did Naruto afford all of this?"

"Well the book was a birth day present to him from me," Jiraiya admitted a little upset that his gift was given away. But then again he knew that Kakashi was enjoy it more so he was not all that upset. "The others he go the money from gambling parlors." The others gave him a flat look, "What the kid had unbelievable luck when it comes to slot machines. He won all the money he needed and then some."

'That danm Gaki!' Tsunade thought. 'I don't know how but I know he's been taking all my luck!'

"So just how strong has Naruto gotten?" Yamato asked. He had been meaning to ask for a while now but did not have an opportunity.

All eyes looked at Jiraiya, even Kakashi who had put his knew book away. "Naruto is at least a Class-B ninja in terms of over all ability. He knows about a fourth of the Mokuton Justus, a few Suiton (Water Element) and Douton (Earth Element) and some Fuuton (Wind Element). He's still working on controlling Katon (Fire Element) but has made almost no progress in his Raiton (Lighting Element). The last one are the hardest for him as it is opposite of his primary. It'll probably take a couple of years more for him to be able to use Raiton effectively." Jiraiya stopped for a moment as the others had contemplative looks on their faces. "His Taijutsu still has no recognizable style but it is more refined and successful. He'll probably never get above mid Chunin low Jounin. His Genjutsu in limited to only detection and cancellation."

"That would put him on the level of a new Jounin then," Kakashi mused.

"He just needs is experience in real battle and I do not doubt he will be able to pass the Jounin Test," Jiraiya said smiling, "In all honesty if Naruto had not been able to use Kage Bushin (Shadow Clone) then we would not have been able to cover as much as we did."

"I'll have to give him a test to see how his abilities work with others," Kakashi said. "But I'll keep what you said in mind."

"Have you figured out why the Kyuubi's chakra was elementally neutral?" Tsunade asked.

"Yeah," Jiraiya answered. "It is a combination of everything that makes the Kyuubi's chakra neutral. His innate ability to control a Bijuu's (Tailed Beast) chakra from Shodaime, the Seal, and your old necklace all act as a filter that negates the elemental nature of the charka. Essentially when Naruto uses the Kyuubi's chakra it is completely neutral but still more potent than a human's. This is why if he were to use the Kyuubi's chakra while performing a jutsu the results are a lot, bigger I guess you could say."

"What is his level when he uses the Kyuubi's chakra?" Kakashi asked. He remembered that Naruto's fighting abilities would increase dramatically if he were to use it.

"Depending on how much he uses, anywhere from Class-A to Class-S," Jiraiya answered. "The problem is he cannot sustain it. Using the Kyuubi's chakra is like opening the Celestial Gates with him. Gives him extraordinary strength but only for a short time. The Human body no matter how tough or what special powers it has cannot use a Bijuu's chakra for a sustained period of time."

"So even with his abilities if he uses to much Naruto could die," Yamato summarized. Jiraiya gave a brief nod, "How much is too much, though?"

"When he manifests three tails his body starts to injure itself giving him a maximum window of ten minutes to fight. At four tails it cuts down to less then a minute," Jiraiya answered. "Any longer and he will suffer from extreme exhaustion and be bedridden for nearly a weak."

"You sound so sure," Shizune said. "Has this happened before?"

"Yes about a year ago," Jiraiya answered. Jiraiya did not go into details but they could tell it worried him. "Naruto knows his limitations and won't push it that far unless forced to." Left unsaid was that they knew Naruto would if he felt someone he cared about was in danger.

"Well if that's all," Kakashi spoke up. "I think I'll head off know. I have a new book to read."

"Kakashi pay extra attention to Chapter 4," Jiraiya said. "I'm sure you'll appreciate it, Hehehehe..GACK." Jiraiya's perverted laugh was cut off but a punch to the head from a very irritated Tsunade.

"Don't talk about your perverted books around me!" Tsunade yelled. "And you Kakashi..." She turned around only to see the place Kakashi stood now empty. "I sware I'm going to burn everyone of those books one day."


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and only use it for entertainment purposes.

Sakura had dragged Naruto for about fifteen minutes until they ran into the first of their friends, Temari and Shikamaru. When they stopped Naruto took a moment to see the differences in the pair standing before him. Temari still had her hair in its old style and her dress was now a full-length kimono with a large fan attached to her back. Her face was more mature and her eyes showed greater experience that comes from the life of a high level ninja. All in all Temari looked almost the same, as two years ago only instead of a girl in her early teens she was a beautiful young woman. Shikamaru was dressed in a standard Konoha Shinobi Uniform with a standard Konoha Chunin vest. His hear was still in the same style as when he was a Gennin. They only noticeable difference was that he was taller than before, it was almost as if growing up was touch of a bother for the lazy Chunin.

"Temari, Shikamaru its great to see you again!" Naruto said with excitement.

With a sigh Shikamaru replied, "I see you're just as loud as before Naruto."

"I see you're not so much of a runt anymore," Temari said.

"Aw that was uncalled for," Naruto whined a little. "Why is everyone making fun of my height, first it was Kakashi-sensei and now it's Temari." Naruto went into a pout for a few seconds while the two girls giggled and Shikamaru made a comment about troublesome women; this earned him a slap from both Temari and Sakura. After Shikamaru picked himself off the ground Naruto asked, "So what's been going on with you guys? What rank are? Did you anything interesting happen to you while I was away? Are you going out?"

Taking a moment to process the rapid-fire questions from the hyperactive Shinobi Temari was the first to answer, "Well I'm a Jounin now, and so is Kankuro. Nothing overly exciting other than a couple of Missions that I can't tell you about." She then looked at her lazy companion then gave a snort of disgust, "And not we're aren't going out. We're just talking because we're both liaisons for the upcoming Chunin Exam."

"I'm still a Chunin," Shikamaru said with a sigh. "I've seen some good clouds of the last few months." Shikamaru thought for a moment trying to see if adding anything more would be more or less troublesome. Considering it was Naruto he was talking to he decided to add a few things because Naruto would annoy him to no end otherwise, "The rest of our Graduation Class are also Chunin, except for Shino, he's a Jounin so is Neji from Gai-sensei's team Lee and Tenten are Chunins, that about it."

"Hey Temari you mentioned Kankuro becoming a Jounin what about Gaara?" Naruto asked.

"I was wondering when you'd ask about him," Temari smirked, "He's been made the Kazekage, youngest Kage in the History of the Shinobi Villages. We're so proud of him."

Naruto stared at the Jounin for several seconds before he frowned, "Damn he beat me out!" Then he mouth turned upward, "Well that just means I'll have to train even harder and surpass him and become a better Kage!"

It was at this point that Sakura decided to interrupt, "Naruto don't you have something to give to Shikamaru?"

"Oh right!" Naruto said. "Almost forgot his present, thanks Sakura-chan!" Naruto swung his backpack around, opened it up and reach in and pulled out small brown box. "I got this for you on my trip. It's a traveling game box; you can play shogi, go, chess, and a bunch of other strategy games. You change the board with charka and a couple of hand seals, the instruction are inside the box."

Shikamaru took the box and noticed that it unfolded into shogi board and assumed the pieces and instruction manual were on the inside, "Thanks Naruto, but were did you get this?"

"Got from a Wandering-nin, said it helped passed the time traveling. Thought you would like it," Naruto said digging through his pack once more. "I also got you, Kankuro and Gaara something as well Temari. I was going to mail them but sense you're here I can give all three to you." He handed Temari a pair of folded up fans, "These is for you."

Temari took the fans and unfolded them showing there were in fact small battle fans with blades instead of the usual spokes held together by the cloth. "Very nice, these will be great for undercover missions when I can't use my normal fan."

"They have a special addition to each fan," Naruto added digging through his pack yet again, "The one in you're right hand has a Katon (Fire Element) sealed into giving the wind it produces a scolding addition to it. The other one had a Suiton (Water Element) sealed into it giving it a freezing addition to its wind. Got them from a supplied Ero-Sennin knows." Naruto apparently found what he was looking for and pulled out two more items. "Got this after a one a bet in a tourist town, figured Kankuro would like it." What he handed over was ticket to some kind of show, "It's to a Kabuki show that's playing in the Capital of Forest Country."

"These are amazing," Temari commented on the fans, "And Kankuro has been trying to get tickets to that show for months."

"The last one is for Gaara, really didn't know what to get him," Naruto said kind of sheepishly. "I know he has trouble sleeping so I got him a manual on meditation. It should help him a little."

"Thank you Naruto," Temari said softly. She knew what he was referring too and a gift like that would be very helpful for her youngest brother.

"Did you get presents for everyone?" Shikamaru asked.

"Yep," Naruto said.

"Hey Shikamaru do you know where everyone is?" Sakura asked. "It be helpful in tracking everyone down."

"I think Gai's team is at training grounds 12, Asuma-sensei is on a date with Kurenai-sensei, Chouji is helping out at his family's restaurant, Ino's doing the same at the flower shop, and I don't know where the other's are."

"Hey you said nothing interesting happened!" Naruto accused. "I would say Asuma-sensei and Kurenai-sensei dating is an interesting event."

"You asked if anything interesting happened to us, them dating has nothing to do with me," Shikamaru replied.

"We probably shouldn't bother them," Sakura spoke up, "So we'll find the others, thanks Shikamaru." Sakura waved before dragging Naruto off once again.

A few minutes later Naruto and Sakura were approaching Training Area 12 when they heard the call of the rare species of Konoha Green Beasts, "Yosh! If I can't do one thousand squats I'll kick the stump four thousand times with each leg."

"Yes my adorable student show your power of youth!"

"Sounds like Fuzzy-brows and Super Fuzzy-Brows haven't changed much," Naruto said. Sakura only her blonde teammate a nod, knowing from first experience this was true.

When they entered center of the training ground they saw Gai and Lee doing their usual insane training methods. Gai looked the same and so did the Lee only Lee now had a Chunin Vest making look even more like his idle. Neji was off to their right seemingly staring off into the distance, considering that his Byakugan was activated that could be very well true. He was dressed in a white and black battle Hamaka, his hair appeared even longer and he was about a head shorter then Gai. Tenten was off to their right performing a kata with two Chinese swords. She was wearing maroon Chinese pants with a white Chinese Shirt and a large scroll attached to her back. Her hair was just like it was two years ago.

Neji was the first to turn to face them, "Welcome back Naruto." Neji's greeting caught everyone's attention and made them stop and turn. "You're Chakra coils seemed to have increased greatly I can only assume you have gotten stronger."

"You bet I have!" Naruto exclaimed, "You guys looked stronger too. I can't wait to fight you."

"Yosh I look forward to the challenge!" Lee said.

"Well before you get into it why don't you give them their gifts Naruto," Sakura suggested so they would not get side tracked as before.

"Right," Naruto said digging through his pack. The first object he brought out was a think book that looked old but taken well care of. "This is for you Fuzzy-Brows. Got it from a rare bookstore. It's an old Taijutsu training manual. It was written by a guy named Bruce Lee, his name is what caught my attention."

"Br…Bruce Lee!?" Lee yelled. "That…that was the name of ancestor!" Lee immediately started flipping through pages his eyes filled with tears. "This is written work on Jeet Kun Do! Oh thank you Naruto-kun! My family has been looking for a copy of this for generations!"

The rest of the group were absolutely floored by the news and it took them several minutes to recover, "You're welcome Fuzzy-Brows!" Naruto exclaimed before going through his pack again. This time he took out a well made brush and ink set, "Before I left Hinata told me you liked to do calligraphy, so I got this for you."

"I do, and thank this is a well thought out gift," Neji admitted.

"For you Tenten had trouble getting your gift because I didn't know your size," Naruto admitted handing Tenten a clothing box.

Tenten opened the box and inside was a beautiful Chinese white dress with a golden dragon wrapping around the torso from the right hip to the left shoulder. "This is gorgeous!" Tenten exclaimed. Sakura too shared Tenten's opinion as she gazed at dress.

"Who would have thought Naruto had a such a good eye for clothes," Sakura muttered.

"If it doesn't fit right the lady who made said she would be willing to adjust it for you," Naruto added. "Her name and how to get in touch with her are in the box." Naruto then reached into his pack for a fourth and pulled out a pair of leg bands that Lee and Gai often wore. "These are you Super Fuzzy-Brow, at first I was going to get you and Fuzzy-Brows the same thing but the book changed that idea, glad I did." Naruto took a quick glance at Lee and saw him reading his new family heirloom then turned back to Gai. "Anyway these can adjust their weight by chakra, more you put in the more they weigh."

"Yosh such thoughtful gifts from my Rival's Student!" Gai yelled taking the weights. For once Lee did not join him as he was still reading his book. "With these I shall extend my victory of my cool hip rival!"

"Well we have to find the others," Sakura said. "We'll see you guys later." Team Gai gave absent waves of good-bye as they were all admiring their gifts.

After a few minutes Sakura spoke up again, "Those gifts were really thoughtful Naruto. I know Lee especially will enjoy his."

"Thanks Sakura-chan," Naruto replied, "So who's next?"

"Ino's is pretty close so lets head there," Sakura suggested. Naruto nodded and followed his pink haired teammate.

A few minutes later they walked in and were greeted by the bored tone of Ino's voice, "Welcome to Yamanaka Flower Shop how may I help you?"

"You can help by being enthusiastic about seeing us Ino-pig," Sakura said.

"Forehead! What are you doing here?" Ino asked perking up because she now had an excuse to leave the counter and possibly the store. "And is that Naruto?"

"Yep, just got back a couple of hours ago," Naruto answered. "We're finding everyone so I can give them the presents I got while on my trip."

"You got me a present?" Ino said coming out from behind the counter. When she did Naruto took notice that Ino had changed her outfit a little, it was the same general style and color but was made of a stronger material, probably for heavy missions. He hair was the same style only longer and her face lost the roundness of lingering childhood and now she was a lovely young woman.

"Yeah," Naruto answered pulling out yet another gift. "This is a rare orchid from called the Dusk Orchid, because it only blooms at Dusk. Thought you like it because you grew up around so many flowers."

"I've heard of this Orchid," Ino said. "They're hard to grow, and yes I do like flowers, I just don't like selling them."

"Sorry to cut this short but it's starting to get late and we still have some other people to meet," Sakura said. "We can all catch up later."

"Yeah sure," Ino said admiring the flower, "I've got to go talk to my Okasan (Mom) about taking care of this little beauty don't want it to die."

Sakura and Naruto gave a quick good-bye at that and left for their next destination, which was Chouji's Family's restaurant. It was not far from Ino's so the trip did not take too long. When they entered they were greeted by their large friend now sporting the traditional Akimichi hairstyle, currently he was wearing a restaurant uniform but from his exposed arms a lot of Chouji's fat had been traded in for extremely dense muscles that only hinted at the power the young Chunin now had. "Naruto, Sakura, Shikamaru said you would probably show up," Chouji exclaimed. "You're looking great Naruto."

"You are too," Naruto replied. "You don't look so fa…I mean big boned, more like big muscled."

"Hehe thanks," Chouji responded. "So what's this about a gift you supposedly got me?"

"Got right here," Naruto said tapping his bag, now much less stuffed after unloading so many presents. "Here it's a cook book from I found in the same book store I got Fuzzy-Brow's present in. The recipes are supposed be really good. I'm not that good of a cook so I don't know yet."

"I-tar-ian?" Chouji said trying to sound out the type of food the book detailed. "Thanks Naruto, I'll see what I can do, after that I'll let you have the second try."

"Second why not the first?" Naruto asked.

"Because a good chef always tries his own food first to know he gets it right!" Chouji said with a great belly laugh. "I'll see you guys later the dinner rush is about to start."

"Yeah we should be going too," Sakura said.

"You know Chouji's mention of dinner made me realize how hungry I am," Naruto said. "And I have been in Konoha for hours and haven't had Ichiraku's at all."

"Well then lets go," Sakura said. "I'll even pay for a bowl for the surgical supplies you got."

"Thanks Sakura-chan!" Naruto exclaimed rushing off to Ichiraku.

When Sakura had finally arrived she saw Naruto had claimed his old stool and was now on his fifth bowl. As she sat down and ordered she could not help but think, "Glad I only said one bowl."

It was when Naruto reached his tenth bowl, two minutes after Sakura arrived, that another person joined the them, "Welcome back Naruto."

Naruto stopped mid slurp and turned to the person that spoke, "Thanks Iruka-sensei!" Naruto greeted, after finishing the bowl. Placing it back on the counter Naruto reached down to his pack and fished out his gift for Iruka, "Here."

Iruka took the small box Naruto gave him and opened it up. Inside was a small statue of a father holding his son. The gifts symbolism was not lost on anyone who knew the pairs history, the statue was Naruto's way of saying that he considered the father that he never had. "Thank you Naruto, this means a lot."

Naruto gave a big foxy grin before turning to Ichiraku and his daughter, "Don't think I forgot about you two either!" Naruto reached into his pack once more withdrawing two more packages. "For you Ojiisan (Old man/grandpa) I got a book called 1001 Ramen Recipes From Around The World. You'll be happy to know some of your's are in their as well. For you Neechan (Older Sister) I got you a necklace like I got for Shizune-neechan. I hope you like it."

"It's beautiful Naruto," Ayame replied slipping the blue necklace over her head.

"These are some pretty good recipes Naruto," Teuchi said flipping through the book. "Thanks this will help expand out menu and bring more people in."

"Well I need to get back home Naruto," Sakura said paying for one bowl of ramen. "I'll see you tomorrow so we can distribute the rest of your gifts. After that I think Kakashi-sensei will want to test our abilities so you have better get some rest."

"Good night Sakura-chan," Naruto said, "And don't worry I'll leave after talking with Iruka-sensei for a bit." Sakura gave a smile and a nod before heading home. After she left Naruto turned to Iruka, "So what have you been doing since I was gone?"

"Well mostly teaching, helping out in the mission room and going on the occasional field mission," Iruka answered. "Pretty much the same as before. Oh Konohamaru and his friends have graduated and are on the same team."

"Really?" Naruto asked. "Who's their sensei? Anyone I know?"

"I think so," Iruka answered, "He's the Jounin Ibisu."

Naruto gave a mischievous fox like smile when he heard that, "Oh I just Konohamaru is going to love my present then." Iruka could not help be feel very worried when he heard Naruto say that.

The next day Naruto met with Sakura outside his apartment building early in the morning because just like Sakura predicted Kakashi left a message for them saying he would meet them that afternoon to test their abilities. Fortunately that had also received messages from the rest of their friends that they would all meet in one place so Naruto could give out the rest of his presents. They all decided to meet early because of missions. So with a quick good morning exchange Naruto and Sakura when to meet the group outside the Hokage Tower.

When they arrived they met Kurenai's team, Asuma, and Konohamaru Corp and Ebisu waiting for them. Naruto saw the changes they went through over the last two years. Hinata had grown him into a young woman that would turn many men's heads though she still wore bagging clothes they still gave a glimpse of what her figure may look like. Kiba looked similar to before only now sported a Chunin vest. Akamaru was simply bigger about the size of a very large wolf. Shino was even more covered with a large baggy hooded sweat jacket and long pants. Ebisu, Kurenai and Asuma were no different. Konohamaru had grown several centimeters and now wore a green shirt and brown pants but still had his scarf. Moegi had longer hair and wore a pink shirt and blue pants. Udon still wore glasses and now had on a black one-piece loose jumpsuit. All three now proudly wore a Hitai-ate (Forehead Proctor) on their heads.

"Considering the presents I've heard about from Shikamaru and the others about the presents you gave them I can honestly say I'm rather excited about what you're going to give me Naruto," Asuma said.

"Well then I guess I'll save you for last," Naruto said with a smug smile causing Asuma frown a bit. "Well let's start with you Shino." Naruto reached into his bag and pulled out a bug container, on the inside was blue preying mantis. "Got her from an guy near the boarder between Fire Country and Wave Country."

"I have never seen a Preying mantis like this before," Shino said quietly. "Thank you."

"Next for you Hinata I got you this," Naruto pulled out a brush and ink set similar to what he gave Neji but with subtle differences, for one thing there were several seals on the brush and inkwell. "Ero-Sennin told be you would be studying seals," Hinata gave a shy nod, "Good then I didn't mess up. This is a special ink set that makes making Seals easier."

"Th…Thank you Naruto-kun," Hinata said with a blush cradling the set like it was fine China.

"For the Flee Bad and his dog…" Naruto began

"HEY!" Kiba yelled causing several people to laugh.

"…I got these," Naruto held up a collar and a leash causing Kiba to become steaming mad. "HAHAHAH just kidding. What I actually got you were these," Naruto dropped the dog leash and pulled out a statuette made out of solid crystal, "This is an idle to the Wolf God Moro."

Kiba took the statue giving it an appreciative nod, "Not bad. But don't think this will keep me from kicking your ass for that joke you pulled!"

"Any time Dog Breath!" Naruto countered before turning to Akamaru, "For you Akamaru I got you some nice prime stakes, they should arrive by the end of the week." Akamaru bark loudly and licked Naruto's face in appreciation and thanks. "Now for you Moegi I got you this bracelet sorry for nothing as personal as the others but I didn't know what to get you." Naruto handed the Gennin a finely crafted silver bracelet that Moegi eagerly put on.

"That's ok," Moegi replied. "I really like, and I like silver."

"For you Udon I got you this puzzle set," Naruto handed him a medium sized box with several 3-D puzzles inside.

"I always like puzzles thanks," Udon said already trying to solve on of them.

"For you Konohamaru I actually made something for you myself," Naruto handed Konohamaru a scroll with the title, 'The Uzumaki techniques for Embarrassing Perverts.'

"How dare you give that to him!" Ebisu yelled.

Konohamaru just started to laugh uncontrollably looking at the scroll and his Jounin-sensei, "Oh I can't wait to try these!"

"For you Kurenai-sensei I got you this Genjutsu scroll," Naruto said handing over to the Genjutsu Mistress, "Won it off a Wandering-nin, Ero-Sennin says it's pretty good so figured you'd be perfect to give it too."

"Thank you Naruto," Kurenai said taking the jutsu scroll.

"And now for you Asuma-sensei," Naruto reached one last time into his bag and pulled out a plain brown bag. "Some of the best tobacco grown in all of Fire Country, directly from the Todeshi."

"Thanks Naruto," Asuma said taking the bag and giving it a smell. His Nicotine addiction was already screaming at him to go off and role one of the leaves into a cigarette.

"Well that's it…" Naruto began.

"What about me?" Ebisu asked. "Didn't you get me something?"

"Never even crossed my mind," Naruto answered honestly. "But if you're feeling left out here," Naruto handed Ebisu some money, "Take this and get what ever you want, porn, new shades, I don't care." Ebisu grumbled a bit about brat kids but took the money anyway, he had been wanting to get the latest volume of Ichi Ichi (Come Come) Paradise secretly for a while now, not that he would tell anyone.

"Well now that is out of the way," Kakashi said startling many of the group I need to take Sakura and Naruto away for a while. "We'll you all later."


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and only use it for entertainment purposes.

The walk to Training Area 7 went faster then both Sakura and Naruto expected. Later they would realize it was because it something as simple as they physical changes and not due to anything physiological. When they arrived Kakashi spoke up, "All right, you two know the rules. You have to try and get these bells from me before the time limit is up, the only difference is this time you have twenty four hours to get them." Kakashi held up the two bells to emphasis his point. "Also you two should come at me with your full strength because this time I don't plan on holding back." To illustrate his point Kakashi lifted his hitai-ate (Forehead Protector) up revealing his Sharingan. "All right show me what you have learned. GO!"

Immediately Naruto formed a cross like hand seal and called out, "Kage Bushing (Shadow Clone) no Jutsu!" Four bursts of smoke later and there were now five Naruto's standing with Sakura facing Kakashi. After only a second of hesitation four of the Naruto's charged towards Kakashi with two in front and two in the back. When the front two were half way to the Copy Ninja each one pulled out a kunai and threw them at him. A fraction of a second later the two trailing Bushin jumped into the air and threw four shuriken each.

Kakashi, after dodging to his left to avoid the kunai, was now in the direct path of the shuriken. With a nimble twist of his body Kakashi spun away dodging the shuriken. The four Kage Bushin had by now reached Kakashi and started to fight him with Taijutsu. One Naruto had ducked down trying a slide tackle to try and knock Kakashi off his feet. When Kakashi jumped up to avoid the second front Naruto punched high to try and catch him for the brief moment he was vulnerable in the air. Kakashi however was able to track the motion with his Sharingan and caught the arm. Then while still in mid air Kakashi torched his body and kicked the Naruto Kage Bushin in the neck causing it to disperse. The two back Kage Bushin had come in from the sides with kunai drawn trying to stab Kakashi. For a moment it looked like the pair succeeded but after less time then it took to blink an Kakashi disappeared into a burst of smoke leaving the first Naruto Kage Bushin to be stabbed, it too burst in to smoke leaving only the two Naruto Kage Bushin where they were fighting Kakashi only seconds before.

From his hiding spot Kakashi smiled under his mask. 'Naruto certainly has improved,' Kakashi thought. 'He knows Kage Bushin's secret and used it to test me. He should now know my reaction time, speed and reach. The question is, what will he do with it?'

Suddenly Kakashi's sharp ears picked up the faint noise of a kunai flying through the air. Reacting on instinct Kakashi dropped out of the tree he was hiding in just as a kunai flew through the spot his body had just been. The astounding part was the kunai continued on for twenty meters, through four, thirty-centimeter thick tree trucks before it was stopped by a bolder that was now covered in cracks. With his Sharingan Kakashi was able to see that there was no chakra imbedded in the kunai to give it a sharper edge, like the way Asuma used his trench knives. 'That means all that was a result from the power of the throw,' Kakashi thought nervously. He peaked out around the tree and saw Sakura smirking with Naruto giving her a wiry look. 'Looks like Tsunade-sama taught Sakura how to use her chakra with maximum control to give her that monstrous strength.'

Back with Naruto and Sakura the pair were discussing what they should do now that Kakashi had an idea on what they could do. "Sakura-chan, we can't fight Kakashi-sensei directly," Naruto stated.

"Yeah," Sakura agreed. "He's just too good and the Sharingan gives him a huge advantage."

"Ero-Sennin said there where four ways to fight someone with a Sharingan," Naruto added. "One, you be faster then them. Well I can tell you right now I'm not. My Kage Bushin couldn't even lay a finger on him. Two, fight them in a way were he can't see you. We know that won't work with Kakashi-sensei because of the Wave Mission. Three, you fight indirectly. Stay out of their line of sight and use area effect jutsu. Ero-Sennin fought Sasuke's brother to a draw when we were searching for Tsunade-Obassan (Grandma) and I can use a few area effect jutsu. The fourth way is to fight them using help."

"I think we should use the third and fourth method together," Sakura said. "Remember that using the Sharingan tires out Kakashi-Sensei. So we fight in with tag-team tactic, we both use attack the area, wear him down and then take the bells."

"Did Tsunade-Obassan teach you area effect jutsu?" Naruto asked.

"No, but I can cause a lot of damage to the area just like Tsunade-Sensei," Sakura said.

"Sounds like a good plan Sakura-chan," Naruto agreed. "And with so much forest around I've got just the jutsu to give Kakashi-sensei a hard time." With a series of six hand seals Naruto said, "Mokuton: Mori Ude no Jutsu! (Wood Element: Forest Arms)."

Kakashi heard the bending of the branches around him before he saw them. When he did he saw all of the branches were teeming with chakra. 'I was wondering when he would use his Mokuton jutsus.' With leap to his left Kakashi avoided the first bunch of branches trying to ensnare him. With a jump backwards Kakashi avoided the second wave of branches. Ducking low to the ground allowed him to avoid the third group though not completely as his vest got snagged causing him to rip the material. The forth set of grasping tree limbs caught his right arm making Kakashi cut his sleeve with a kunai in order to get away. 'Got to get away from all of the trees!" Kakashi thought sprinting towards one of the forest clearings.

Sakura watched as Kakashi dashed into the clearing. Naruto had controlled the tree branches in order to herd Kakashi into this clearing where Sakura would engage Kakashi. When she moved into the clearing, Kakashi was looking right at her not at all surprised by her appearance. 'Guess he was expecting me,' Sakura thought. 'Well let's see if he expects this!' Concentrating chakra into her right fist, Sakura brought her hand down, slamming it into the ground causing the entire clearing to break apart. The shock wave from the blast flung huge rocks all over the place, some even hitting Kakashi. Too Sakura's dismay the Kakashi that was hit just disappeared into a puff of smoke signaling that she hit nothing more than a Kage Bushin.

Kakashi who he just received his Kage Bushin's knowledge was impressed with the display of power and control. 'Just more evidence that Tsunade-sama has taught Sakura a lot, I doubt Gai's student Neji has the kind of control to do that with chakra.' Taking a moment to think Kakashi analyzed Naruto and Sakura's actions. 'They're working together and are using area effect jutsu and avoiding eye contact with my Sharingan. They want to wear me down, prolong this fight knowing the drain my Sharingan has. If I keep on the defensive they'll have the bells in no time. Looks like its time to go on the offensive. Now who should I go after first?'

Sakura and Naruto were walking through the training grounds moving as silently as they could, trying to find Kakashi. After the Kage Bushin, Kakashi pulled they figured he devised their strategy and gone to ground somewhere. Now they were looking for him about five meters away from each other. Enough that neither would get in the way of the other but still close enough to quickly render assistance.

Kakashi had circled around Naruto and Sakura. Knowing Naruto's weakness was Genjutsu he moved to catch the blonde in one. When Naruto was close enough Kakashi darted out in front of him and cast a Genjutsu on him through Sharingan, "Kogeru Hifu (Burning Skin)."

"AAHHHH!" Naruto screamed do to the illusionary pain of having his skin set on fire. The screaming stopped soon afterwards when Naruto's skin started to turn brown and his body started to break apart.

"Mokuto Bushin! (Wood Clone)," Kakashi said in surprise.

"Futon: Tatsumaki no Jutsu! (Wind Element: Tornado)" Naruto called out sending a small but powerful twister towards Kakashi.

Kakashi did not have the time nor distance to dodge the tornado normally, so he dodged using a jutsu, "Doton: Shinjuu Zanshuu no Jutsu! (Inner Decapitation)." Kakashi sunk into the ground just before the tornado passed overhead.

He was no down there for very long as Sakura once again proved her strength by destroying a local area. "You'll have to try harder then that Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura called out.

"Oh don't worry I will!" Kakashi returned. Knowing he was faster and more precise with his Taijutsu then both his students Kakashi decided to engage them at close range. When he moved in Sakura tried to dodge his punch but was too slow and took the blow to the stomach. However because of her training with Tsunade Sakura could take a punch better then most people and the punch did little more then to cause her to shift her weight. She tried to counter with a front kick but Kakashi was too fast and stepped inside the kick and tripped Sakura causing her to fall onto her back.

Naruto seeing Sakura go down charged Kakashi from the back. Just as Naruto was within striking distance of Kakashi, the Copy Ninja dropped low and expended leg kicking Naruto into the air just like Lee or Gai. Instead of following up with an Omoe (Lotus) technique he grabbed Sakura who was standing up and flipped her towards Naruto.

Just before Sakura hit him Naruto performed, "Kage Bushin no Jutsu," and formed two copies of himself. One Kage Bushin moved the original Naruto out Sakura's way and the other steadily caught her so she would not injure herself. As soon as all four bodies hit the ground Naruto display one of his bouts of thinking on the fly and preyed on Kakashi's other weakness, "Hey Kakashi-Sensei, there's a fully illustrated scene in Icha Icha Tactics on pages 110 and 111!" Kakashi fell for the trick and took his eyes of Sakura and Naruto to reach for his new book.

Sakura and the Kage Bushin that caught her were close enough to reach Kakashi fast enough while he was distracted. The Kage Bushin grabbed Kakashi so he could not move and Sakura went for the bells. When she grabbed them she tossed one to Naruto and held up the other one in front of Kakashi's eyes. "Looks like we win Sensei," Sakura smiled.

The Kage Bushin dispersed and Kakashi reached up and lowered his hitai-ate back over his Sharingan. "I guess you do," Kakashi replied. "And I deserve to lose. I read the entire book last night and know there is no illustrated scene on those pages. Naruto played into my love of the Icha Icha Series brilliantly."

"Thanks Kakashi-Sensei," Naruto smiled. "You might want to cut back a little just in case some else does that."

"Read Jiraiya-sama's books any less!?" Kakashi asked like Naruto had said the stupidest thing in the world. "Never! That would be a sacrilege!" Sakura and Naruto looked uneasy at Kakashi's proclamation. For the next thirty seconds there was an uneasy silence between the three. Finally Kakashi went from offended to his normal lazy posture. "Well anyway you two did great. Tomorrow we'll get back into the mission rotation so meet me at the Hokage Tower at ten."

"Do you mean ten for you or everyone else?" Naruto asked. "Because if it's your ten then I'll just sleep in."

Kakashi gave a happy eye smile as he said, "You'll just have to show up to find out."

An hour later Kakashi was standing before Tsunade and Jiraiya. The moment he walked in he saw the smirk on the both their faces. He knew that they knew how their apprentices faired. Without any prompting Kakashi began his report. "Both Naruto and Sakura have progressed at an extraordinary rate. You were right Jiraiya-sama Naruto is at an overall level of a low Jounin. Sakura is about the same, though she lacks any real long-range ability. They again that is to be expected considering her training. I would recommend that we start off with B-Rank missions both as teams and on an individual basis. After probably ten or so of those I would say they would be able to start taking A-Rank. Then, unless they jump in skill again, I would say they would be ready for solo A-Rank missions after a couple of dozen of those."

"In other words you predict in a couple of years you won't have a team anymore," Jiraiya said.

"Now the question is, will Naruto be able to fend of Akatsuki?" Tsunade followed.

"He knew how to fight my Sharingan well enough. I would say he would be able to defend himself well enough, probably not win but at least be good enough to get away," Kakashi answered. "But will he be willing to is another matter."

"Naruto's as stubborn as a rock, but he knows not to take unnecessary risks," Jiraiya replied. "Now his definition of necessary risk is a bit different then what others would say."

"People like Koharu and Homaru," Tsunade added. "They expressed what they call concerns about my 'personal relationship with Naruto may keep me from thinking about his mission assignment objectively.'"

Jiraiya snorted saying, "Those old goats are getting senile. They don't know a damn thing about Naruto's abilities and won't unless they are shoved down their wrinkled throats."

"Be that as it may they will use their positions to try and force you to do what they want," Kakashi said to Tsunade.

"They have already tried," Tsunade said. "They made the argument that Team 7, regardless of Sakura and Naruto's training under us, is still weakened by the absence of a fourth member. They've tried to recommend a person to fill the spot."

"And who would this person be?" Kakashi asked.

"Some genius that was personally trained by an old Anbu Commander," Tsunade answered.

"Let me guess Danzo's brat, right," Jiraiya said with a frown.

"Correct," Tsunade answered.

"I refuse to take him," Kakashi said immediately. "I've worked with Danzo's troupes before. Anyone trained by him will conflict with the team dynamic and trust of my team."

"As the Commander of Team 7 that is your right," Tsunade nodded totally unsurprised by Kakashi's reaction. She knew he would never go for having an emotionless drone on his team. Kakashi may not show emotions during a fight most of the time but he knew the value emotions had outside of battle. Having unfeeling shinobi often drives away clients more often then not. Customers want to know people they hire are still human, at least most of clients that Konoha takes anyway. And above that Kakashi feels trust is absolutely essential for teamwork, something he feels you can't have without feeling emotions. "Still your refusal will just piss them off more."

"Well that would be your problem, wouldn't it Tsunade-sama?" Kakashi ask with a smile.

"Oh shut up!" Tsunade snapped. "But you're right they will be even more annoying then before."

"But they won't be able to do anything," Jiraiya added. "There is no regulation that says the number of people on a team or have to operate as one. The only regulation there is applies to Gennin teams."

"They may try to force the issue with Naruto's rank," Kakashi said.

"Naruto may be a Gennin in rank, but not skill," Tsunade countered. "With you're evaluation of his skill on the record it will be hard for them to convince anyone to see the need. And if do, I'll just assign someone you know and trust."

"Moving on, what about Orochimaru?" Jiraiya asked. "We all know we're going to run into him sooner or later."

"We've found various bases hidden through out at least four different Countries," Tsunade said. "Most were small with just enough supplies to outfit a dozen or so Oto-nins and not much else. However we did find one that was some kind of medical lab in Ocean Country. That one was abandoned only a few weeks before we arrived. The only person left this poor girl that was turned into a human/fish hybrid."

"What happened to the girl?" Jiraiya asked out of curiosity.

"Had to surgically remove and then regrow most of the skin that was turned into scales," Tsunade said. "The additional internal organs necessary for underwater breathing were fully integrated into her body so they had to stay. Still at least she's able to walk without people staring at her now." Tsunade gave a smile, "She's living with Anko now, mutual hatred of Orochimaru made it work at first. Now they are like sisters…well more like cousins."

"Your finding some many small bases seems to confirm what my resources have told me," Jiraiya commented getting the conversation back on topic. "They told me that Orochimaru has at least four main bases with several smaller ones hidden all over the continent. Problem is they don't know the locations, yet. Said they'd contact me when they had the information."

"Naruto, Sakura and I should be able to handle Orochimaru and Kabuto well enough," Kakashi added. "I've done a bit of training myself and have some new surprises just in case. Now if Sasuke is with them, that will cause probably cause trouble. We don't know just how willingly Sasuke went when Kabuto took him at the Valley of the End."

"Unfortunately we won't know that until we finally engage them," Jiraiya said. "Naruto would probably be willing to fight Sasuke but not be willing to kill him. Sakura…"

"Sakura would hesitate to fight him," Tsunade finished for Jiraiya. "When the meeting comes and if Sasuke poses a threat, I am ordering you to subdue him with any method necessary Kakashi."

"I understand Tsunade-sama," Kakashi replied his voice flat but result.


	13. Chapter 13

If there was one thing Tsunade hated about being Hokage as much as paperwork, it was the complaints

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and only use it for entertainment purposes.

If there was one thing Tsunade hated about being Hokage as much as paperwork, it was the complaints. Everyone in the Village thought their complaints could only be settled by the Hokage personally. Whatever the complaint or problem she would hear about it. Whether it was something minor like two silk merchants arguing about whom had the better product or something major like the Hyuuga Clan trying to forcibly buy up more land from the Nara Clan. The seemingly endless line of complaints was the second greatest enemy to all Kage in the Hidden Villages.

The true problem with complaints however were that some just could not be ignored or delegated to someone else. Complaints like the one from the Konoha Advisors about allowing Naruto to take high class and high profile missions. If she ignored the complaint the Advisors would take it the Village Council. Now the Village Council only had written power when it comes to civilian matters of the Village, such as trade development and non-shinobi education. However there were enough high-level ninja on the council that they could cause disruption among the shinobi forces. Missions would not be taken, orders 'misinterpreted,' materials 'misplaced' were all symptoms of complacent Village Council. Thus the Advisors complaint had to be addressed by Tsunade personally and immediately. Unfortunately for Tsunade the complaint before her currently was a continuation from a previous one…

Flashback

"Hokage-sama please do not take this the wrong way but could your decision about Uzumaki be based on your personal feelings for the…boy?" Homaru asked.

"Quite the contrary," Tsunade said smoothly. "If I let my personal feelings about Naruto sway my judgment I would actually agree with you. I would keep him here in the Village were he would be safe and protect him personally. However my decision to put him on the active roster of Shinobi is based on his abilities of as a shinobi. Jiraiya, Yamato and Kakashi have affirmed that Naruto's skills are at least new Jounin. Combined with Kakashi's leadership and Haruno Sakura's, whom I trained personally, partnership, Naruto is more than ready to face the missions and dangers that are facing the Village."

"And if he were to be captured by the Akatsuki or worse loose control and use the Kyuubi's power, then what?" Koharu asked.

"First, if you had read Naruto's file you would have realized that Naruto loosing control of the Kyuubi is almost nil," Tsunade replied. "His necklace, the Bloodline Limit he inherited from his mother and the Yondaime's Seal all repress and subdue the chakra. The only way for the Kyuubi power to even manifest in the slightest is through Naruto's will. And the Akatsuki threat…"

"Yes about that," Koharu interrupted. "We feel that there should be another skill ninja to fill the missing roster point on Team Kakashi. We acknowledge the words of some of our two shinobi about Naruto's skill, but the threat from Akatsuki is just too much of a risk. The empty roster position must be filed."

Tsunade looked contemplative for a moment. She knew these two would pull this and the truth is they were correct. As good as Team Kakashi was they could use just some back up. But as she knew what Koharu and Homura would try she already had a response. "I agree," the Advisors looked pleased and were about to speak, but Tsunade continued; "However the final selection will come down to Kakashi as it is his team. You may of course recommend any ninja you feel is up to the task and I shall do the same."

"Yes that is reasonable," Homura replied unsettled. He knew they had just been outmaneuvered by Tsunade, because Kakashi would never allow their recommendation to join his team. Still he needed to save face even if just a little. "These are our recommendations," from inside his yakata he pulled out two file folders, "the first is a genius on par with Uchiha Sasuke. He was trained by a former Anbu Commander and is quite skilled. His name is Sai." Tsunade took the file and made a cursory glance at it. The information was impressive but ultimately meaningless; the file was assuredly doctored. "And our second recommendation is the veteran Jounin, Ishigami Roh. His service record is excellent and his experience would be a good addition to Team Kakashi." Tsunade took another cursory glance at the file. She knew the Jounin, he was good but not good enough. This was probably just some file the Homura had on him at the time.

"I will give these to Kakashi and he'll look over them," Tsuande said handing the files off to Shizune. "Now I have duties to attend, I'll see you later…"

End of Flashback.

"You are complaining because Kakashi has not made a decision yet, why?" Tsunade asked. Koharu and Homura come after a week of not hearing anything from Kakashi. This time they were not alone, they pulled Danzo with them. Danzo was an old war veteran from the Second Great Shinobi War. His long service cost him an eye and the permanent use of his right arm. Now He was one of Tsunade's military advisors so he had the right to be here. Personally she hated the man, he represented everything she and all the previous Hokage's were against; a military state in Konoha. But any good leader knew that to get the best advise they needed at least a few people that would argue with them instead of just a bunch of yes men. The fact that Danzo was actually a brilliant strategist secured his role as a military advisor.

"We are not so much as complaining as inquiring why it is taking so long," Danzo answered. His voice was calm and precise like this was just a simple game to him. "The longer he waits the higher the chance an emergency comes up. If that happens you may have to send out whatever forces are available regardless of their preparedness. If that is Team Kakashi then they would be at a disadvantage."

"Kakashi is going over all the recommendations that have been submitted to him," Tsunade answered. "From you, me, some of his own ideas and even a couple of requests from other Jounin. The truth is Team Kakashi was high profile and highly requested even before Sakura and Naruto's extensive training. And now that word has gotten out about Naruto's training under Jiraiya and Sakura's training under me the a lot of people want in. Kakashi is merely trying to sort out who will working for the good of the team or just wanting to further their own career."

The three actually agreed with this. They could see ambitious shinobi wanting to be put on such a team even if temporarily. With the wide variety of missions Team Kakashi could potentially go on; medical relief, land restoration, body guards, assassinations; just being on the team would get a shinobi's name out there. This would lead to more personal requests and greater amount of high paying missions. The fact they were essentially doing the same thing was not lost on them, not that it bothered them.

Danzo had been observing Tsunade's body language from the moment he, Koharu and Homaru walked in. In the beginning she was annoyed, toward the middle she was suspicious and cautious, now she was relaxed and confident. 'She has legitimate responses for every argument we can come up,' Danzo realized. 'All she has to do is foist responsibility off on Kakashi as she already put it in his hands. If we try to push her to push him she will just say rushing Kakashi would be detrimental to the situation and then use our previous arguments against us. We've been outmaneuvered again. I knew we should have waited longer, but Koharu and Homaru were getting nervous and impatient. Tsuande won this round.' Danzo respected Tsunade, for all her faults she was a good leader, problem solver and military commander. He still hated her and thought her policies were too soft just like the Sandaime, but he could acknowledge she was a formidable opponent in the game of politics. "Thank you for the update Tsunade-sama, we apologize for our impatience." Danzo stood, gave a half heart bow and left the room. His two coconspirators quickly following.

Once they were gone Tsunade turned to Shizune, "Find Kakashi and bring him here, but do is quietly."

"Yes Tsunade-sama," Shizune nodded.

In an isolated training area Naruto was sitting on a large rock under a small waterfall that had not been there the day before. Naruto created the waterfall to aid in his current phase of training, Fire Chakra training. This was the second of four phases of training his charka to form fire. The first phase was learning to generate heat from his lungs as most Katon (Fire Element) came from the mouth. The second stage of training was learning to maintain that heat under non-favorable condition, near water and in the cold. Naruto sitting under a waterfall accomplished both. The Third stage involved generating heat from different parts of the body; fingers, feet, back etcetera. The final phase was the hardest, its goal was to generate heat from any part of the body and maintain it under adverse conditions.

Every now and then Naruto would take a deep breath and expel it over a tora (Tiger) hand seal and see the results. The goal was to generate enough heat so he could see wavy air like in a desert without causing a flame. If he produced too much heat he would be simply doing a weak Katon Jutsu instead of mastering the Fire Chakra affinity. The difference between using a jutsu and mastering it was mastering the jutsu required understanding the steps that led to the jutsu's result. Similar to the difference between using a calculator and working out a math problem on paper, both accomplish the same result only working out the problem out on paper showed the person understood the whole process, a calculator just give the answer.

Naruto took a deep breath and exhaled over his tora seal. When the heated air came out a line of heated air progressed about five meters from his mouth. After a few seconds of breath part of the stream ignited into a flame. Naruto immediately stopped and took a deep breath to get oxygen back into his lungs. 'Too narrow this time and the air ignited,' Naruto thought. 'The last time was too wide and the heat dispersed too quickly for me to see any heat columns. So too wide and the heat is too spread out and too narrow causes combustion, just like Ero-Sennin said. I have to make the air stream just a bit wider so it doesn't ignite again.'

Taking a deep breath Naruto was about to try again when he felt a couple of people enter his area. One of the side effects of his training was Naruto discovered when he used his jutsu some of his chakra remained in the area. This became a sort of early warning system for him because when a new person entered it sent a ripple through the charka and back to him. "Who's there!" Naruto called out. He knew he was a wanted man but felt reasonably safe in Konoha's territory, so he called out. If they replied chances were they were friends, if not then they were most likely enemies.

"Just me and Ino!" Sakura called out. A couple of seconds later Sakura and Ino came upon Naruto's little waterfall just as Naruto finished putting his black shirt back on. "What are you doing way out here Naruto?"

"Need a lot of room to train my Katon Affinity," Naruto answered. "Fire is often the hardest Element to control in terms of side effects. I didn't want any building to catch fire or someone getting burnt."

"Good thinking," Ino said, "I once saw Chouji put too much lighter fluid on a barbeque once. It flashed and soon the entire counter at his family restaurant was on fire." She giggled for moment before continuing, "Took him two months to pay his Outo-san (Father) back for the damages." Ino took a moment to look around the area, "You know, I don't remember there being a waterfall here?"

"That's because I made it today," Naruto said proudly. "Used Doton: **Joushou** Chiri Dobei (Earth Element: Rising Dirt Wall) to form the small ridge and Suiton: Kousen (Water Element: Underground Spring) to connect a local spring to create the actual waterfall." The kunoichi were rather impressed with Element Manipulation giving nods of approval. "So what do you want?"

"I'm here because Kakashi-sensei asked me to tell you we'll be meeting at the Hokage Tower tomorrow for our first mission," Sakura answered. "Ino just decided to tag along."

"Actually I wanted to thank you for the Orchid," Ino answered. "My mom put in our family green house and so far its' doing pretty good."

"I knew you'd do a great job taking care of it," Naruto proclaimed.

Ino blushed a little at the praise but not enough for Naruto to notice, Sakura however did. 'Does Ino like Naruto?' she thought

"Well Mom asked me invite you over for dinner to thank you the Orchid," Ino said her blush a little more pronounced. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Sakura smile like Cheshire cat. "So how about after your mission?" Ino asked quickly, she wanted to get away before Sakura could start to tease her.

"I'm sorry but that will have to wait," Naruto apologized causing the girls to look at him surprised neither thought he would turn down a home cooked meal. "I already promised Tenten I'd take her out after my first mission." The girls' faces went from surprised to shock. "Said she wanted to try out her new dress I got her."

"Yo…you have a date with Tenten?" Ino asked utterly astounded.

"Da…date!?" Naruto almost yelled. "N…no we're just going out to eat at…" After brief bout of denial realization came to him that he actually might have a date with Tenten. "I've n…never been on a date b…before." Naruto went from stunned to panic, "Damn what the hell am I going to do!? The only thing I know about dating is to not do what Ero-Sennin tries!" Naruto started pacing back and forth, "What am I going to do? What am I going to do?" After several paces and further ranting Naruto stopped suddenly and faced the girls. For a moment Naruto was about to say something but he shook his head and said something else, "Sorry to run off like this, but I've got to go. I'll see you tomorrow Sakura-chan, bye Ino." Naruto took off leaving the stunned former rivals alone.

Both kunoichi were stunned at the idea of Naruto going on a date with someone. Sakura more so, as she had thought the only person who thought of Naruto that way was Hinata. And even then Hinata would never ask Naruto out on a date, it was not in her nature to take the incentive in something like this. Asking a guy out was in Ino's nature and she even did it on several occasions over the pasted two years. Those dates never lead to anything but it proved Ino had the drive to ask a guy she interested in on date. Still for Ino to ask Naruto to dinner, even if they would not be alone, was not something Sakura had ever predicted. Ino was the kind of girl that went for the cute guys, ones that had slightly feminine looks like Sasuke, not rough hard looks that Naruto developed on his time away. Then there was Tenten. Sakura never knew the girl all that well so she did not know what kind of guy she liked. But she seemed more like the kind of girl who would flirt with a guy and leave subtle hints that she wanted to be asked out, then accept. And even if Sakura did not know what kind of guy Tenten liked she could picture Naruto and her together. For that matter Sakura could not picture any girl and Naruto together. A possible remnant of view of Naruto from when they were both Gennin.

Ino was stunned because she was stuck between shock, surprise, a bit of jealousy, anger, and a bit of joy. She was surprised for a similar reason as Sakura, she could not really see any girl liking Naruto as a potential boyfriend. Shocked because no guy had ever turned her down for date in two years. Granted none of them worked out because those guys thought she was too forceful in personality. Ino just thought those guys could not handle a strong woman like her. Ino was jealous because Naruto had put Tenten before her, disregarding the fact Tenten asked first. To Ino it was almost like Naruto said she was not as good as Tenten. This led to the anger, for Ino saw herself as second to no girl in their age group and a part of her felt she needed to prove that to Naruto. The joy Ino felt came from the fact that before Naruto left the two had become better friends. She had reached an understanding of just why Naruto acted the way he did as a kid. That understanding allowed her to see Naruto for what he really was, a kind, caring, brave, foolish at times, but rather likeable guy. The part of her that was saw Naruto as a friend was happy that someone thought of him as a potential boyfriend. Sadly that part was buried under Ino's competitiveness, jealously and her own budding attraction to the upcoming Elemental Master.


End file.
